Hairpins and Ramen
by Chocopanda124
Summary: Miso Uzumaki never wanted to be a shinobi but she did it for her brother. She didn't want to protect the village but she ended up protecting it. She loved her brother but she never wanted a life like this. A life where she was orphaned, hated, a lone and afraid. Yet if life where easy it wouldn't be hard.
1. Chapter 1

_I'm only going to do this once,_ **_I don't own_**

**Chapter 1**

A little blonde baby boy toddled about on unsteady legs. He stumbled a few times and fell a lot. He didn't cry, he instead would laugh and give a big grin as he would stand back up and kept trying to walk again. No parents where around to cheer the boy on, no adults paid him attention. They instead ignored him in favor of the other children in the orphanage. However the boy would turn and grin at the little blonde girl who would smile back with a smaller gentler smile of peer adoration and clap her tiny chubby hands to cheer the boy.

The little girl always seemed to be cheering her brother on. The women who watched over them realized that the little girl was more advanced than most toddlers but she wouldn't do anything till her brother did something. Naruto had thrown a toy across the room one day and fussed because he couldn't go to the toy. The little girl stood up on her legs, skipping crawling, and walked perfectly over to the toy and brought it back to her brother. She didn't walk again till Naruto took his first steps. She didn't talk till Naruto talked, and when she did talk it was in complete sentences.

It was just the two of them in their little corner. The ladies the owned the orphanage avoided the children as much as possible. They attended to their physical needs but left them to their own devices as often as they could. Sometimes they left them in there crib all day long. Other times they took them out and placed them in a pin in the far corner of a room and left them there. It was lonely but the children found companionship in each other. They were always close together. When they slept in the same crib they held hands, when they played by themselves they sat by each other as close as possible.

In a morbid way it was lucky that there were two orphan children instead of one. For if it was one- the neglect would cause more distress and more loneliness. The children didn't really cry mostly because their instincts somehow let them know that crying would get them nowhere. If it was just one child it would be crying constantly out of solitude and the sheer need of companionship. But the two children together filled the gaping whole. Of course that didn't mean they didn't look for that old man that would often visit. They liked the old man, and would fight for his attention when he came.

He smiled at them, he held them, he sometimes brought toys, and he would congratulate them at what they could do. When he came the women that were supposed to take care of the children paid extra attention to them on those days. They were nicer to them on those days and for some reason they gave the old man great respect.

It wouldn't be till both siblings could speak and understand did they realize that old man was the Hokage. It saddened them when they comprehended that the man wasn't related to them but it didn't stop them from loving the guy. Miso, the blonde little girl preferred to call him Ji-chan, Naruto preferred more blatant methods and called him old man. Either way both siblings held the Hokage close to their hearts.

Their care for the old man is what initially got Naruto into wanting to be the Hokage. Like most children at a young age they usually want to copy there hero or someone they hold dearly. Most of the time it's a parent, since neither child had a parent they both tried to copy Sarutobi. Miso would always attempt to copy his body language whenever she saw him: how he stood, the way he clasped his hands, his facial expressions. It was really adorable, although no one would ever tell Miso that. After all how can someone no matter how much they despise the child not adore the sight of a little girl with long blonde hair that went down to her waist, toddling behind the Hokage and badly copying everything he did. If he sneezed she would fake sneeze, if he stopped she would stop, she would follow behind trying to copy the way he walked and since she was a clumsy child she would often fall then get back up and continue copying the man. It was like watching a Mamma duck with her ducklings following her around.

Naruto on the other hand took a much different approach, one would consider extreme. One day he was sitting with the Sarutobi and his Imouto. When he suddenly declared that he would be Hokage just like old man and become Hokage just so he could be just as "cool" as Sarutobi. Of course in later years as the twins got older Naruto's ambition to become Hokage would only become stronger as it gained another purpose; to have the village acknowledge him and his Imouto and show that they weren't monsters or trash.

Although Hiruzen Sarutobi would never say it out loud, he had a secret joy in watching the two young children look up to him. He knew that they weren't the only ones that looked up to him in the village. But there was something different about the two children he had a somewhat grandfatherly relationship with admiring him. Probably because they were closer than most people who looked up to him. Probably because they helped fill the place in his heart that was torn between the loss of the people he considered family. Plus those two kids didn't see him as the great Hokage, God of Shinobi. They saw him as Hiruzen, the old man and Ji-chan who had a cool job.

Sadly because Hiruzen wasn't in the children's lives as much as they needed and as much as he wished. He was hokage and that of course took up most of his time, he had his own family that needed him, and the council was already unhappy with the children and restricted what he could and couldn't do. So because of his position in life he couldn't do much for the children aside from taking care of their baser needs and a little more.

He was still upset that the two people who really could have given the children what they needed, had not. Kakashi, understandably was still a child when Minato and Kushina died. Yet that didn't mean he couldn't attempt to be in their lives, much like how Minato and Kushina had been in his. He could at least visit them and now that he was an adult he could at least take them in. However, Kakashi avoided twins, if Sarutobi hadn't known better he would say that Kakashi had no affiliation with the young Uzumaki siblings. In some ways Kakashi at times could be worse than the villagers. The villagers treated the children bad out fear and misunderstanding. Kakashi knew better than the villagers and most shinobi, Kakashi was just being a coward.

Yet, Hiruzen couldn't find himself to be fully angry with the white haired shinobi. Frustrated yes, angry no. After Kakashi had lost a lot in his life and was in simple terms an emotional wreck who didn't know how to really interact with people. Because of this he could see the man's mentality when it came to the twins, and knowing the children and how like their parents they were, he knew it would be painful for the copy-nin.

Jiraiya on the other hand was a different matter. Jiraiya was their godfather and he had the means and stability to take care of the two children. Granted Jiraiya is not the best parental figure to have in a child's life with all of his…hobbies… Yet he still would have been better than nobody. Plus he did have his moments of maturity. He knew the Frog Sage had bigger things to deal with, and he was looking for the man that had caused his students death and orphaned his children. He knew Jiraiya was still keeping tabs on Orochimaru. He knew Jiraiya had that whole spy network thing and of course those stupid books that he wrote. However, Sarutobi also knew that Jiraiya like Kakashi could have made time to at least visit the children and get to know them. He could have honored Minato's and Kushina's wishes in taking care of their children instead he was tarnishing that wish. Of course Sarutobi also knew that most of his anger came from disappointment in his former student.

Yet that didn't mean that he didn't try to talk to Jiraiya about the children whenever he could. And it didn't mean that he didn't try to broach the subject with Kakashi. Yet neither swayed in their actions leaving two very lonely children and an old man who could only do so much.

He just wished at times that they could see how great the Uzumaki children really where. Moments like the one he was watching right now. Three year olds Miso and Naruto where both running around the back yard of the orphanage playing Ninja. Now most children did this of course, but it was somewhat special to see the dynamics of the twin's relationship. Naruto was going full throttle while Miso was there to back him up.

"Miso, 'urry up. Da' emmy' commin," Naruot yelled to his sister as he hid badly behind a tree. His back was facing the tree that he was attempting to hide behind. But every time he took a step further to hide behind the small tree, his right side would start reveling itself on the other side of the tree.

"Nee-chan, don' yell, Ninjas shouln' yell," Miso reprimanded in a loud whisper with a kind smile on her face, as she did what Naruto told her to do.

"Sowy, are you commin' or not?"

"Hai," she said as she hid behind a neighboring tree actually concealing herself.

"Awack!" Naruto yelled as he charged forward releasing a flurry of paper ninja stars that Miso had folded for him. At surprisingly young age Miso was very adept at origami. The paper stars flew out but landed only a few feet away from him. Naruto charged towards Sarutobi and stood protectively in front of him as he fought imaginary bad guys.

"Nee-chan, powtect da Hokage! Mor' ninjas are commin'," Miso darted out from her hiding spot, tripping over her feet and face planting. "I ment to do dat," she hurriedly said as she rolled over into a crouch then threw her own origami ninja stars. She then ran over and stood side by side with Naruto.

"Good job, Miso!" Naruto cheered as he fist pumped the air.

"anymor' Nee-chan?"

"Nope, we got them good. We protect' you old man," Naruto said with silly grin on his face a large gap in his teeth where he had lost a tooth. Sarutobi raised an eyebrow as he had not realized that somehow he had ended being part of their game. He was just sitting on the back patio of the orphanage sipping on tea and watching them play. He felt a tug on his sleeve and looked towards Miso.

"May I hav' som' tea too?"

The elderly man smiled and nodded as he led the children inside the orphanage towards the table.

Miso was five when she started at the academy. Her and her brother had started earlier than most because the civilian academy wouldn't tolerate them and the Hokage couldn't convince them otherwise. So instead of going to the civilian school which everyone goes to the first few years of their life before switching to the ninja academy… the two just started in the ninja academy and would receive a few special lessons on what they would have learned at the civilian school. They would be somewhat separate from the rest of the academy till there age group came along, then they would be integrated. This early start was the main reason her brother failed the graduation exam two times before he passed.

She didn't really have any interest in going; she didn't really want to be a ninja. She didn't really want to protect the village. After all the village had done nothing for her and her Nee-chan. They had tormented, scorned, and ignored their very existence so why should she train to become a ninja to protect them? Yet, here she was at the entrance ceremony with Naruto. Looking at her brother and how happy and excited he seemed allowed Miso to at least be happy for him. Besides going to the academy wouldn't be so bad if Naruto was with her, and he wanted to be Hokage which meant that he was going to become the best ninja there was.

Which also meant that Miso was going to have to become a strong Kunoichi. Which sucked in its own self because that meant that Miso still had to go to the academy and act like she wanted to protect the village and pretend to uphold the Will of Fire. Yet, she would do it for her Nee-chan. She would do a lot of things for her Nee-chan, her alliance was to him. He was her family, he was the more important one of the two people she actually cared for (Ji-chan and her Nee-chan), and he needed her. Miso liked that Naruto needed her because it made her feel important. So at a very young age Miso had already decided something that most people would never choose; Nee-chan came first.

Nee-chan got that last serving of food. Nee-chan got to decide what they play. Nee-chan was better than everyone else. Nee-chan had her loyalty and she would follow her brother to death. That was Miso's mentality. If her brother decided he wanted to destroy the village as retribution then she would destroy it along with him, in fact she would attempt to make his hands stay clean on the matter as much as possible. If he told her to kill herself she would.

Miso had a large brother complex which was a result from only having two people in her life care for her. Naruto was her big brother and her father figure. He was the one who tucked her in at night while she read them bed time stories. He was the one that made her smile every day. He was the one who stopped her tears, who healed her when she hurt herself, he was the one who protected her from the villagers, and he was the one who gave her undying love. Chased away the things that go bump in the night. Gave her, her loved hairpins. He told her right from wrong (although she knew right from wrong, but she followed his words still). He was the stronger of the two never letting people get him down. He had the ambitions and the skill to back it up. He was the only constant in her life and for that she loved him dearly.

Ji-chan was in there life but it seemed as they grew older Ji-chan became less involved. Miso knew one day the old man would leave them, so while she loved him second only to her brother but more than herself, she knew that Ji-chan wouldn't be able to watch over the two of them.

Miso fingered one of her hairpins that she got from Naruto. This one was her favorite it was a small white chibi bunny that sat on a small orange hair clip. Naruto's favorite was a bobby pin that had a ramen bowl at the end of it. Miso had about seven hair pins and clips from her brother. They didn't really have money so on their birthday Miso would buy Naruto ramen from Ichiraku and Naruto would by her one or two hair clips, they did this every year. Miso wanted to get her Nee-chan something more than ramen but ramen was the only thing her brother really liked and she didn't have tons of money. So she settled with ramen.

Fingering the hairpins was something that Miso did to reassure herself. It was an odd habit, but she knew that most people had odd habits. Like biting their nails, cracking their knuckles, things of that sort… hers was just fingering her hairpins when she needed a little bit of encouragement.

"Imouto," Naruto said causing Miso to stop fingering her hair clip that clipped her bangs back to the side. Naruto only ever called her Imouto when he was either serious or concerned. "You don't need to worry. I'm here and I'll protect us both and where going to be awesome ninja. Because I'm going to become Hokage and you're going to be right there with me. Believe it," Naruto said with his famous grin on his face as he reached for his sister's hand it and gave it a light squeeze before letting it go and putting his hands in his pockets.

Naruto was confusing as an older brother to other people. Their relationship seemed like Miso was the one who told him what to do and got him out of trouble, to some extent that was true. Yet, Naruto was the one who really led the siblings. And he would get into his Onee-chan modes whenever his sister needed him. He wasn't touchy feely or super over protective. Yet when he got to his big brother mode people could see his love for his Imouto.

"Hai," Miso said with a gentle grin that matched the one her father had. Naruto looked like their Father but acted more like their mother, Miso looked like her mother but had her father's coloring and acted like him. Of course neither of the twins knew that. However Miso's disposition usually matched her fathers with a more reserved personality, gentle, kind, and came off a little shy. Yet over the years of the villagers harshness towards her and her brother, and trying to show that she wasn't affected to her Ji-chan and Nee-chan. Miso had developed a double personality.

Not one where, it would want to take over, but one that protected her. Her second side to her, her darker side, was the one that would be okay with destroying the village. The one that held no alliance to the Hokage. The one that she would use, in later years, when she battled. When she switched off to this persona it wasn't like she went crazy and blood lust like. It was just that her personality went from sweat and clumsy to serious, graceful, and skilled killer. Her smile that she always wore would change to a similar expression her father had when he was fighting but with a colder look. It was terrifying because the moments when she really become angry or the personality needed to appear to protect herself, where the moments people realized that she was powerful.

Yet the second side wasn't demonic and cruel. It was really hard to explain. It was still Miso, it still wouldn't hurt animals and shy away from bugs, it still doted on her brother, and it would still find mercy in its victims. Yet this second side would kill with thought if needed too, it would take charge of the situation and it would take no crap from anyone.

The first time Naruto saw this second persona was when they were attacked by a chunin ninja trying to assassinate them when they were four. The children had just barely moved into the apartment they would be living in. The orphanage would no longer deal with them and no one would take them in. So the Hokage ended up putting them in their own apartment and he charged the apartment manger of taking care of their home needs and he placed anbu guards on the children. Since the children where shinobi they tended to mature faster so he wasn't worried about them keeping the house clean and them locking doors and things. It was more making sure they could go shopping and cook. So he put himself in charge of shopping for groceries, hygiene products and anything they would need. The apartment manager in charge of keeping up the apartment and heating and cooling it. The anbu in making sure the children didn't put themselves in danger. He was going to hire someone to cook when Miso revealed that she could cook.

The third of course had her prove it, and was surprised when she made a full meal of rice, fish, and miso soup perfectly. After all she had learned to cook from the women at the orphanage when they stopped making the two food. So upon Miso's and Naruto's request the Hokage left them alone when it came to how the children lived. Miso cooked their food and made sure they got their studies done, Naruto surprisingly kept the house clean (upon his sisters request, she was a little OCD). Miso did the laundry and Naruto took care of their small little garden. Of course the Anbu secretly helped them out, making it easier for them.

They had been living by themselves for a month. When the Anbu on duty had to leave his guard to stop another issue happening. With the Anbu left a man with killing intent made his move.

A masked ninja with a chunin vest barged through the window and threw shuriken at them. Naruto had nocked both of them to the ground getting a kunai in his shoulder and glass shards from the window to cut him, leaving Miso unharmed. The man began to advance on them. Yet Naruto was frozen in shock and couldn't move, Miso on the other hand had one thought going through her head. _He injured Nee-chan. _

She didn't cower like Naruto did, she picked up one of the thrown kunai that had fallen to the ground. Her hair falling into her face and covering her eyes as she grabbed a potted plant that was by her and threw it at the man. When the ninja dodged and was distracted she ran towards him and stabbed him hard in the knee, putting the sharp weapon all the way through the man's leg, through the fat and the muscle, cracking the bone and sending it to the other side. Only the tip of the handle sticking out of where she had shoved the device. She then grabbed a large shard of the potted plants ceramic pot. Grasping it tightly in her tiny hands causing them to bleed. With the man now kneeling down in pain and using colorful language she stabbed the shard at the base of the skull with as much force as she could…killing him.

His Imouto went from being his sweat little sister who passed out from seeing bugs and cried every time she fell to someone he didn't recognize. Emotionless calculating eyes with a smile missing from her face. Then as she had been under a jutsu or something Miso blinked after the man toppled over and landed in an awkward heap unto the floor. She wretched herself from the man and fell, scrambling backwards with tears in her eyes apologizing to Naruto the whole time begging him not to hate her as she began to rock back and forth her fingers clutching her hair and pulling at it. Her eyes wide with panic as she stared at him with such a broken look. Her body shuddered and rocked, tears streamed down her face in rivers. Her big blue doe like eyes terrified not of the man and her actions but at the thought of her brother hatting her. Her hair on her left side had started turning red from the blood on her left hand as she pulled her hair in panic. Her face, Naruto would later relocate wasn't blotchy and snot covered but she looked oddly pretty for someone crying.

Red rimmed eyes and tears pooling down her cheeks. Terrified eyes but aside from that she didn't look ugly.

It was that moment when Naruto realized what his sister could really do. He knew she was smart but in that moment when Naruto watched his sister move so effortless and kill without a thought Naruto knew she was skilled, she was smarter than most, she had potential to be a prodigy, she was a prodigy… and untrained one... He also was finally able to confirm his fears on how she really felt about everyone else. Yet Naruto didn't hate his sister, he wasn't scared for her, he was concerned for her. Because he knew that Miso was a little scared of herself and while both where alone…Naruto was taking it better then she was. She was isolating herself and he worried about what his sister would become. So as she looked at him with such a broken look Naruto did the only thing he could really do, he wrapped his arms around her and cradled her to him as she cried. Whispering a few words of comfort.

When the Anbu had finally gotten there he was shocked to see the scene. A dead high ranking chunin and Naruto holding his crying sister. Most had assumed that Naruto's oddly calm expression and how he held his sobbing sister meant that he was the one who killed the man. But they were wrong, so very wrong. They wouldn't realize it till the Chunin exams just how powerful the two could be and were. But also that Miso was the one who killed the man. In fact, the rookie nine would witness Miso's other side at the exams. While she was the klutzy girl with a brother complex who scored average on the exams. They would see her defensive side, the killer she could be, and the great kunoichi she could become.

But that was years away. Right now they would only see the little girl who would toddle after her brother. Run into wall and trip over nothing. Who was kind of friends with Shino, and did everyone small acts of service. The girl who carried around a back pack constantly so she was always prepared. The girl who snuck Choji food. The girl who even though was scorned by the village would still try to help the village with the little things like carrying groceries.

It confused Miso why she did those kind things, Miso's darker self-pondered, but she could never really find an answer as to why she kept doing nice things for people she didn't care about. At least that's what she told herself that she didn't care. In fact Miso told herself, lots of things that were mostly untrue. She told herself that she didn't care about the people around her but if that was true then she wouldn't be helping them. She told herself that she was a liar and a horrible person because of her darker side but really she just did what most shinobi did. She created a way to cope with the job, she separated herself from her actual being so she could handle killing someone then go back to living a normal life. She just did it earlier than most. She told herself that she only needed her Nee-chan but truth was she needed Kakashi, she needed Lee and Shino her soon to be best friends in a few years, she need the rookie nine, and she needed the Ji-chan and Jiraiya. She just didn't know she needed them till she had them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The morning started like it usually did for Miso. She woke up at a 5 a.m. and started training till about 6:30 a.m. She would start with stretches no matter what training regime she was using. Miso had two typical regimes that she used to train herself with. The first was cardio which was Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The second was Strength training which was Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

The cardio began with her doing a run around the village and then returning to the apartment and using the apartment's backyard to do speed and agility drills. Running between objects, suicides, dodging things, throwing something then running to catch it, etc. Exercises that involved improving her reflexes, agility, flexibility and speed. The strength training involved her just training in the apartment building's backyard. She'd stretch, do a small warm up, then she would work on every muscle of her body: Weight lifting, push up, sit ups, planks, squats, supermans, etc. She would also work on her taijutsu. She would practice her kicks, stances, and punches.

She varied up each of her different routines daily to make sure her body didn't get used to them and she rotated them with every other day to allow her body time to wind down from the other. Sundays where her relax days where she would practice throwing ninja weapons and do a few other things with taijutus but nothing as rigorous as she did during the rest of the week. During these routines Miso would mentally review hew funjutsu studies that was also why she had a stop watch around her neck during her training. Miso was a good multitasker but she needed to be able to have some way of counting her exercises. So when it came to both her Cardio and Strength training used a stop watch to time herself and she would let her mind wander on funjutsu. She would hear the beep and she would move on to the next exercise.

Miso studied funjutus all day long, when she wasn't busy doing school work, keeping the house in order, doing errands, and aside from her morning training. Miso would have a scroll or book out reading up on the art of sealing and the different styles. She usually reserved practicing the seals and her calligraphy for the evening after dinner. When both her and Naruto where home and they would sit and talk why she practiced. It wasn't like Naruto was just watching her practice, he would sit and do his homework, plan his pranks and just babble to her why she listened with a half an ear.

Today was Monday so she did her cardio work and mentally went over funjutsu and the concept of its respective forms and how the stroke work was important. Once done she went inside quickly cleaned herself up and got ready in her signature clothing. Two low tied pig tails with a hairpin or clip in that varied daily, a large white hoodie that went to just above her knees. Black leggings and plan blue shinobi sandals. By the time she was done it would be 7 a.m. She would then make sure Naruto was awake and ask him if he was ditching school entirely, or part, and if he was going to school with her.

If he was ditching school entirely Miso wouldn't make him lunch or breakfast. If he was only ditching part of school then she would work on their lunches. She usually made most of their lunch the night before but she liked to have a few fresher thing in there. So if she could make it quickly in the morning she made it then. Miso would during this time mentally make a schedule for that day and a To Do list of things she needed to do. Miso was always planning ahead, she couldn't help it. She'd plan out her day to incremented times and then she have a small To Do list mentally fixated that she'd get done; if something change she'd spend a half a minute rearranging her mind.

After she finished the lunches she would have a quick breakfast, then check her small black back pack that had cute bunnies printed on it to make sure she had everything she needed… Homework, first aid kit, money, food for animals if she came by them, and bunch of other random things that you'll never know you'll need.

Then she would head to school get the school work for both her and Naruto that the teacher wouldn't bother to teach them. She would head out to their spot at the academy, if it was good weather, the tree with the swing that Naruto would sit on and she'd sit under the shade of the tree and she would teach her brother and herself their school work. If she couldn't go outside then they would sit in the back hallway away from everybody. Once their work was done Miso would complete the rest of the things she had to do that day while Naruto ran amuck. She'd walk around town doing errands, helping people if they needed help, playing with stray animals, visit the Hokage and have tea, then she'd go home do her chores and most of the time Naruto's too. Depending on the time she'd either read a book that wasn't involved with her ninja training, maybe do some origami, draw (even though she was a bad artist, seriously she got a D in art, and the teacher wasn't being biased for once) and finish her homework… She would then cook dinner at 5:30 p.m. and Naruto would join her. Then they spent the rest of the evening together.

It was a simple life, and every day was generally more or less the same. However today was different. Nothing changed in her schedule, it was just that her and Naruto where 9 now. Which meant their age group was finally coming to the academy. Which meant that they would finally start their actual ninja training. No longer where they just at the academy for the sake of being their cause no one else would take them. Now they had to sit through class, be fairly graded and interact with people their age.

Naruto was excited. Miso wasn't. She didn't like change and it was easy to keep people at an arm's length with how things were going…. But now…. Now she was going to have to interact with people. On the bright side Miso was okay with their new Sensei, Iruka. The Hokage had briefly introduced them about a week ago. While Miso knew he was a little wary of her and her Nee-chan she also knew that he would at least treat them fairly.

The academy worked a little different than most schools. You'd have one main Sensei teaching you basics all through the academy with a few other teachers on the side to work with taijutsu and things of that sort. Every three years when the class generally graduated the teacher would get a new group of students and start over. If someone didn't graduate that year they would just fall back to the year below them and study with them till they could take the exam again. Technically you could take the exam whenever you wanted.

Schooling was done differently for everyone. If you were a civilian you just started the civilian academy at five where you went to preschool and then you'd spend the next twelve years learning. If you're a civilian who wanted to be a shinobi then when you're between the ages of eight and nine you'd enroll in the ninja academy to learn. Those of Clan families had the choice of whether they homeschooled their child till they could go to the academy or not. Clan families also started training younger than those who weren't part of a clan. That's generally how they found prodigies. If the child excelled enough they got private training and took the genin exam when they were ready and could veto the academy. That's how you got kids at the age of 9 being chunin like Kakashi and Itachi. If a child got to the academy and then showed great skill they could also receive private training and graduate early, that's generally how the few civilian prodigies left the academy. Not that prodigies where common… Ninja children generally matured faster than other kids, so the large course work that they received those three years of the academy was easily handled.

The course work included basic history, fundamentals of Chakra and its control, basic taijutsu and genjutsu, math, reading, writing, a little bit of science, learning about the different nations, learning about Konoha's ninja system and then a few basic jutsus. Further education in a particular subject was done by one's family or one's own self.

The genin exam could be given at any time as long as it was given by someone who was qualified. That's how her Nee-chan had already failed the exam…twice… He had gotten riled up because of some mistreatment from their supposed pears and teacher. Since Naruto was of courses Naruto took the exam only to fail. After all he had no proper schooling and didn't do much training. Miso had tried to get Naruto to train but their skills where vastly different. Miso was more of a thinker and close combat fighter who sucked at ninjutsu. Naruto was more of an all-around type of guy. So Miso couldn't really help him, plus she was the same age as him and no matter how much studying she did and how advanced she was... she could only do so much.

Plus, Naruto trained in his own way. His pranks that he pulled daily involved espionage, escaping, quick thinking and cardio. So Miso usually just had Naruto do some strength training and projectile throwing on Sundays with her (Naruto was not a morning person so Sunday was the only day they could really work together).

"Miso," Naruto said as they walked along the dirt road to the academy.

"Yes?" Miso inquired as she tilted her head to the side to look at her brother walking by her, Stumbling a bit over nothing, Naruto reached out with one hand and steadied her.

"Do you think it will be different?"

Miso paused at her brother's question. Would the academy be different now that they were with kids their ages, a teacher who seemed okay, now that they could actually work towards being shinobi. _No_, Miso thought. Just because they were older and now they were officially part of the Ninja academy didn't mean that people changed. Yet Miso didn't want to tell her brother that she broadened her fake grin that she was always wearing, and nodded in a yes motion, "I hope so". That's all she said, she didn't want to get his hopes, she didn't want to delude herself, but she didn't want to lie.

However, things would be different this time. Not vastly different where they all of a sudden had friends but different. Today was the start of their actual journey. They would still be lonely, but there would be a select few who would come into their lives and lessen it and it all started today.

Miso hummed as she walked into the academy and into the entrance ceremony sitting next to her brother. Naruto was practically vibrating in his chair with excitement. Ji-chan stood in front of everyone looking very important and regal. Miso listened with rapt attention to Sarutobi speak even though she had already heard a similar speech a few years prior. The speech seemed different this time, more personal. Once he was done speaking and everyone was split into their classes, she gave a small wave to the Hokage as she left the room… or at least attempted to leave the room. With her head turned toward the Hokage as she waved to him she ended up walking straight into the door. The kids laughed and a few adults giggled too. Miso just blushed heavily and hurriedly bowed and apologized to everyone as if her clumsy nature caused a problem, this caused more laughter.

Naruto and Miso ended up sitting in the far back desk by the window. It was just the two of them and Miso enjoyed that, her brother didn't like it so much but Miso liked that they had their own little spot. Where they were away from everyone. Where it was just them. Where no one else was. She like their spot it was just them and no one else, also she did enjoy the view from the window.

" I'm Iruka Umino, you may call me Iruka- Sensei. Now, when I call your name stand up and introduce yourself. Starting with Aburame , Shino," Iruka said and soon the rest of the class began introducing themselves. Naruto was already bored and was now fidgeting in his seat. Miso wasn't bored and listened contently to each of her class mates introduce themselves. Some of them where interesting.

Aburame-san, the first kid who went, was straight and to the point with a slight long winded conversation about bugs that almost made his introduction humorous. Akimichi-san was eating chips during his intro and you couldn't understand what he was saying between all the munching. One girl with dark blue hair and gray eyes was so quit and kept blushing the whole time that Miso wasn't really sure if the girl was saying anything at all. Then there was the kid before them, Uchiha Sasuke. Miso did not like him. He had an arrogant attitude and seemed rude. When his turn came around instead of saying a few things about himself, his likes, dislikes, all he did was glower at everyone and say his name. Now Miso knew he wasn't covering being shy or anything with his bad manners. By the feel of his chakra Miso knew he was just being a jerk.

That was another thing about Miso, she was a sensory type and a good one too. She could see chakra, she could feel the natural energy in the air. Her senses seemed to just pick up on chakra. Like most sensory she could can pick up of signatures from miles away, she can discern who is who, she can tell how much or how little chakra someone has. But unlike most she could see the slight glow of chakra on people constantly. People in her world seemed to always have a little bit of blue glowing around them some more than others. The shade of blue showed how much chakra someone had and the way it flowed around them showed how they were feeling.

She literally could feel it in the air and around her. In high concentrated chakra areas it felt like she was floating through water. If she closed her eyes and shut everything out she could feel the rhythm of which chakra was flowing around her. The world followed a ¾ beat, natural chakra flowed on that beat. Human flowed more and 4/4 beat, animals on 2/4. Of course there where variations but it never left a 4/4 count, some tempos where slower others faster, sometimes they were louder other times quite. Chakra was really like music, most of the time when Miso was humming she was humming to the rhythm and tune that chakra was flowing at in that moment.

Her brother thought she was really talented music wise because she seemed to always have a new tune and was always humming while she did things. Miso never bothered to correct him because it involved explaining her strange abilities.

Now Miso wasn't stupid, she knew this was an odd occurrence. Miso's theory was that she had the normal sensory ability sense birth but the nine-tails chakra (yes she knew about the nine-tails, she would be stupid not to recognize a seal on her brother as a funjutus user and putting their birthday and the death of the fourth hokage and the defeat of the nine tails together wasn't that hard to figure out. She hadn't told Naruto yet… she didn't want too) and the process of such a large scale sealing had side effects on her. Like a ripple in the water. Naruto was the center causing the ripples but Miso was getting hit by every ring and absorbing it. Causing her to be more aware of natural energy and raw chakra. She imagined that she already was chakra sensitive at birth but her ability was just heightened because of her experience with natural energy, nine tails chakra, and her parent's chakra all coming together to form Naruto's seal and the left over residue had somehow affected her. Of course she could be wrong but there was nothing really there to disprove her theory.

Most would wonder how she lived with the chakra constantly around her, but Miso didn't really realize it was around her. It was like wearing a bracelet or a watch for a long time. You know it's their but you eventually just stop feeling it on your wrist. Your body no longer focuses, her body just adapted.

"Uzumaki Miso," Miso shouldn't have been surprised but she was when her named was called. For someone who was supposedly smart she somehow hadn't figured out that she would have to introduce herself. She jumped slightly in her seat, then calmly stood up and then because she was clumsy somehow managed to trip in place and slam her forehead against the desk. Iruka sweet dropped most of the class laughed, and a troublesome was muttered. She rubbed her forehead and her grin became sheepish (Miso almost always was smiling, even though eighty percent of them were fake).

"My name is Miso Uzumaki, I hope we can get along," She then did a quick bow accidently waking her head against her desk again. If there wasn't a bruise their before their sure was one now.

"Miso, do we need to get you ice," Iruka said weakly as he too was trying not to laugh at her misfortune.

"No Umino Sensei, I have a cold compress in my back pack," the rest of the class now looked at her confused as she reached to the side of her chair and lifted a small black back pack with a pink bunnies printed on it and pulled out a cold compress to hold to her head. Everyone but Naruto gave her varying looks of confusion.

"Well then… Naruto Uzumaki".

Her brother went from the slightly concerned brother who was checking over her forehead to see how bad the bruise would be to his usual knucklehead self. As he somehow jumped on the desk, pointed his index finger to the ceiling and started talking loudly, very loudly. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm going to be Hokage!"

Of course the class laughed and a few named called, but Iruka just told Naruto to get off the desk and just finished off the role. Then he went right into teaching. Miso was pleasantly surprised that she didn't mind school. She was further head then most of her class mates so during class she multitasked taking notes on what was being taught and working on her funjustu. Sometimes if she was struggling paying attention she would also do some origami, origami was always a relaxing activity for her.

Only Naruto really knew that his sister half the time was working on something else other than the selected course work. Iruka was oblivious as she behaved well in class and she was exactly average when it came to her class standing so he never pressed her. Miso purposely made herself average, she could have easily been in the top five for the class but she liked being average. Average kept her with her brother, average didn't get attention, and average was what she wanted to be. So she purposely did her homework so it scored average, she purposely did average on tests, and she never showed her true skills of taijutsu, chakra sensory and funjutsu. However the only thing she didn't purposely choose to be average in was ninjutsu.

While the Uzamki Clan naturally had people with strange chakra, large amounts of chakra, and healing capabilities. Naruto's masses of Chakra where almost unreal. Most people even some Jounins only had half the chakra Naruto had as a child. Miso had two thirds that amount, In fact in a true sense of irony Naruto who was dead last was a prodigy in the Uzamki clan by the standards of his sheer amount of chakra. Because of their copious amounts of chakra both siblings struggled with chakra control.

Miso could sense it and she knew where it was in her body but she still struggled getting it to focus and move around. Thus when it came to ninjutsu she failed at doing them. All of a sudden her peaceful relaxing Sundays had become her ninjutsu days where she would work on chakra control and attempt to do ninjutsus. That's how Miso found her rabbit summoning scroll.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 **

Miso had been attending the academy with her year mates for a week now. They still teased her and her brother and nothing had really changed. Yet, Miso was still happy with how things were going. Naruto on the other hand had gotten into a nasty habit of ditching class. One because of his disappointment of how nothing had really changed and two because he wasn't used to sitting for eight hours a day. When it was just them and whatever their "teacher" gave them they had a lot more free time and could make their own schedule. Now with the longer hours, more work and the fact that Naruto now had to attend class his ditching had escalated. So had his pranks.

The pranks where mostly because in order to not get caught he was being a lot more resourceful and he wanted a little more attention.

Miso instead of training in the back yard of the apartment building this morning had decided to actually go to the training ground. So at 5 a.m. she headed over to training ground nine and began her usual Sunday ritual of throwing projectiles at a log and a few taijutsu drills. Except this time she was also going to work on chakra control. Miso had read a lot about the subject and understood chakra control was the processes of being able to channel and move your chakra to fit your needs. The concept wasn't too complex the only problem was the theory and actually performing the theory where two very different things.

Miso had looked up many different techniques and drills she could use to help her and consequently she found hundreds. She really wasn't surprised after all if you could think it you could do it. She thought about trying tree walking but quickly decided against as she could barely stick a leaf to her forehead. So attempting to walk up a tree would only get her injured. So for now she settled with the leaf exercises.

After hours of working on the exercises Miso started getting frustrated. She either didn't put enough chakra into the leaf so it kept falling of her forehead. She sometimes split the leaf because she charged way too much chakra into it. Then their where the select few times where she could get it to stick to her forehead but then it wouldn't come off. Giving an aggravated sigh Miso decided to take a break. She pulled out her Chakra paper, blank scrolls, and chakra ink and began practicing her funjutsu.

Miso and Naruto didn't have tons of money. The village paid for their apartment and their bills as well as their food. They were also given small allotted amounts of money to spend themselves each week like an allowance. It wasn't much but it was enough that when saved and spent carefully Miso was able to buy the things she needed for funjutsu. Naruto generally spent his money on prank supplies and ramen.

Miso had started studying funjustu when she saw a masked anbu man summon a dog to get the Hokage the day she killed that man. He cleaned up the blood and the body as well as dressed her brother's wounds. It was the first time she met the man, and it was his first time watching them. Miso knew that she and Naruto had anbu watching them. She could feel their presences and she had grown familiar with some of the chakra signatures. The guy with the white hair was new and it was his first and last time watching them. When he was about to leave and the dog came back Miso had asked him how he was able to make the puppy appear.

"Mista, how did da doggie appear," she asked with a thick voice as she was still crying.

He walked over to her and knelt in front of her ruffling her and her brother's hair, "I summoned it with this scroll".

After that Miso researched as much as she could and started her training on funjutsu. After a few months of reading the books she could get from the library and discovering she had a knack for the subject Miso's interest in just being able to summon a pet turned to a love of the subject. When she ran out of the books she could check out Miso started checking out taijutsu books. There weren't any ninjutsu books aside from the basics but Miso had decided to veto those as she would learn them at the academy. Ji-chan had found her rereading one the library's funjutsu books and he gave her accesses to more complex books that where chunin required clearance. He also bought her paper, ink, and scrolls so she could start practicing. He even gave her a few lessons here and there.

The first seal she worked with was actually an explosive tag seal. After successfully being able to recreate the seal she began experimenting with it till she was able to control how long it took to explode and how big or small the explosions were. It took her months to be able to do that. When she had finally mastered it she started working on her next seal. However thanks to Naruto she developed smoke bomb seals and paint bomb seals. He asked her for help on a prank and the next thing she knew she had devolved multiple prank seals.

Currently she was able to do: her special explosive tags, smoke tags, paint tags, a small barrier tag, and paralyzing tag that held her opponents for ten seconds. She'd been studying the subject for five years you think she would have accomplished more. Yet she was only nine, she had no real teacher, it was all self-study, and funjutsu was a complex art. It was filled with rules yet had no real rules at the same time. If you could think it you could use funjutsu for it. Yet funjutsu had three basic concepts: you can't create something out of nothing it had to already be there, the amount of chakra you put into determined the outcome and you couldn't bend the laws of nature and chakra.

Also Miso was doing self-study with taijutsu that took up her time. So she wasn't fully focused on funjutsu.

Miso was slowly creating a storage scroll right now. Her breathing was calm, her mind was focused, and her tiny hands gently held her brush as she created smooth even complex strokes. This wasn't her first scroll she had done a few others but she kept messing up. Funjutsu was complex because it dabbled into space- time ninjutsu, charka natures, natural energy, and the users own abilities. Summoning scrolls, storage scrolls, explosive notes, barriers, and seals all basically used some form of space-time ninjutsu. They filled empty spaces, created spaces, went to the spirit world, etc. A good funjutsu user was able to manipulate the space time continuum only masters like the Toad Sage, the fourth Hokage and experts of the Uzumaki clan and were fully able to fully comprehend and utilize these concepts.

Funjutsu wasn't uncommon a few jounin ninjas had learned how to do basic seals and small barriers. Medical Ninjas also dabbled in it. Yet a true master was able to create and copy seals. Instead of having set pattern seals they are able just create. Miso was working on becoming a master. She already had vast knowledge on the subject now she was working on implementing it.

She had just finished her last stroke when she heard a cry of pain and a rustle of bushes. She put her stuff aside and grabbed a kunai in her left hand as she slowly approached the area where she heard the disturbance. When a white blur jumped at her causing her to exclaim in alarm and fall backwards on her back. She heard a groan of pain and felt a small weight on her chest. Miso tensed and looked to see what was on her and had hold in a squeal of delight. A white fluffy bunny was on her. However she quickly turned serious when she saw crimson on the fur.

She gently picked the hare and cradled it to her as she walked over to her backpack pulling out her first aid kit and some animal food. She gently placed the rabbit in lap as she began to examine its injuries. It had a few lacerations that weren't too deep on its legs and belly. One of his front legs was sprained, and his right ear had a small triangle shaped chunk out if it near the top. Yet what was most surprisingly was that the rabbit had a set of small white fluffy wings on its back. The wings weren't injured but Miso was a little hesitant to the adorable bunny. Bunnies don't have wings. Yet she continued to clean the wounds and bandage the animal.

The bunny was a little weird for rabbit. It looked more like a cute stuffed animal or an animated bunny that Miso saw on tv. Its legs and arms weren't angled like a regular rabbits, it was bigger than regular rabbit. Had a large round face with a button nose, and large floppy ears, a cute fluffy tail that was like a cotton ball and small fluffy wings that where barely rabbit had a medium sized scroll clutched in his paws. Miso could see that the scroll was badly damaged.

The small creature began to stir and when it opened its adorable eyes, that were oddly very serious looking, it registered that it was with a stranger it began to struggle to get away. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you Usagi-san, its okay," Miso cooed to the small creature as she gently pulled it back to her and stoked its head. The bunny looked at her with its big eyes and nuzzled into her hand. "Let me finish fixing you up, here I have some food too," Miso said to the rabbit as she opened the bag of animal food and spilled some of the food unto the ground for the bunny to eat.

Miso continued to say a few words of encouragement and comfort to the injured animal as she finished cleaning the cuts and bandaging it. By the time she was done the little white hare had finished eating.

"Thank you," a baritone voice said. Causing Miso's eyes to widen in shock and she promptly passed out.

When she came around she felt a soft fluffy bunny paw patting her face trying to bring her into conciseness. "Y-y-you talk, Usagi-san," she stuttered out, pink dusting her cheeks in her embarrassment of passing out.

"Yes. Thank you for your aid and food". The white hare began walking away from Miso with the damaged scroll still in its hands.

"Where are you going Usagi-san?"

"Why do you keep calling me Usagi-san, why do you keep using san?"

"I use san for everyone but Nee-chan, Sensei, and Ji-chan. Everyone deserves respect. My name is Miso Uzumaki, what's your name?" Miso smiled gently at the rabbit making the rabbit want to hug her because of how innocent she looked. Miso also wanted to hug him because of how adorable he looked with such a fluffy body and serious eyes.

"My name is actually Usagi. Yes a hare named hare very original but I'll have you know it's a very honorable name for a rabbit summon," Usagi paused for a moment and gave Miso a curious look, "It's actually a little funny that you've been calling me by name the whole time. I guess it shouldn't be surprising considering you were just calling me what I am."

"Hai, it is a coincidence but Usagi-san, were are you going?" Miso asked as she began petting the hare, the hares' leg began to involuntary move by itself as it shook like a dog's leg in pleasure.

"Nowhere really, my previous summoner has mistreated me and my fellow summons so we broke the contract. Now I'm looking for a safe place for our summoning scroll and a place I can rest". Usagi began to attempt to walk away from Miso's petting but he was enjoying the cuddles way too much. He even began to oddly purr as she scratched right behind his ear.

"You can stay with me and my Nee-chan till you find someone. Let me get my stuff and we can head home," Miso picked up Usagi and held him to her as she used her left hand to gather up her funjutsu stuff, her shuriken and kunais. Once packed she shouldered her back pack and started walking back home. On the way home she continued to talk to Usagi, it was a one sided conversation but she didn't stop talking.

"The weather is nice today isn't? You know when it comes to weather I actually prefer rainy days over sunny ones. Rain helps everything and cleanses it. I also like the sunrise, their just something about watching the sun come up and lighten the darkened sky. Sunsets are nice too but there's just something sad about watching the sun go down. But when the sun rises and you see those few moments of total peace it's amazing. Sometimes I like to climb up Hokage Mountain just to be able to see the sun rise over the village and forests. I'm planning on going to tomorrow if you want you can come too.

I am a little nervous for tomorrow I have to go school. I don't really mind school but it just hanging around people—" Miso was cut off as she tripped and face planted on the ground. She held Usagi protectively as she fell so he wouldn't get hurt. Just as quick as it happened Miso stood up and began talking again.

Usagi liked this human. He didn't like a lot of humans but he liked this one. Her constant talking usually would have annoyed him but for some reason he knew this was uncommon for the girl and didn't have the heart to tell her to shut up. That and her melodical voice was soothing to his floppy ears. He was surprised to find the girl make a few stops on the way to her home. She stopped at the market and bought a bag of groceries, she had to adjust her hold so that her backpack was fully on her back now and Usagi was more or less cradled in her left arm as her right held the bag of food. She waved to a few villagers, she stopped by a box of stray cats and gave them water and food. She helped an old man cross the street. She stopped at a ramen shop called Ichiraku and asked if they needed her to do anything and then she was given the task to pass out fliers.

Miso had to put the groceries in her back pack and had to adjust her old so that her left hand was not only holding him but the fliers also as she passed them out to people as she continued walking home.

What was most surprising to the rabbit was that looks the girl was getting, he could see the stares. The hateful ones, the angry ones, the pitied ones, so many eyes where constantly on this girl. While she moved around and pleasantly helped people he could feel a giant barrier between her and everyone else. His musings where cut off as he began to hear the girl hum. Now most people would leave her be and let her hum away but Usagi wasn't a person and he wasn't a normal rabbit. Her humming followed the chakra pattern around them. He would have thought it was a coincidence but as they climbed the stairs to her apartment building the rhythm changed and she changed her humming too.

All summons had different abilities and where special in their own way. Rabbit summons where known as the lucky summons because if you had a rabbit scroll you had the ability to summon thousands of rabbits and each rabbit had a special skills. All rabbits from the spirit realm and summoning scroll had the ability to sense natural energy and chakra. They where built for it, their large ears picked up on the rhythm and sound, their whiskers and noses could feel chakra and when they closed their eyes and focused they could see it. So finding a human who had sensory abilities that matched up to the sensitivity of a rabbits abilities almost seemed impossible. Yet this girl seemed to be able too. Usagi remained silent on his discovery still unsure if it was just his imagination.

When they entered the apartment Usagi was pleased to see it so orderly and clean. Miso set him down gently on their worn brown couch. She then proceeded to put her things away. Oddly Miso was a little nervous having Usagi in her home. Her and her Nee-chan had a small one bedroom apartment with a bathroom, kitchen area, and dining room that was part of her living room. It wasn't in bad shape and was rather clean, but this was the first time that Miso had anyone in her house that wasn't Ji-chan. She was never happier in her life that Naruto had actually done his chores and the living room wasn't a mess.

Her and her Nee-chans bedroom was small allowing for really only a book shelf (that held all of Miso's funjutsu stuff), their beds and a dresser along with their closet. Naruto got the dresser for his clothes and Miso got the closet for her clothes. The closet also doubled as a storage space for Naruto's prank items, spare blankets, towels, and cleaning items. Their bathroom was small and wasn't anything special. The kitchen was well stocked and organized. The living room held their dinner table, a couch, another book shelf, a few potted plants, and the large window that led out to the small balcony that held the twins' garden. There of course where a few things here and there that showed it was the twin's home. Origami figurines on some shelves, a few pictures hanging on the walls of the twins and Sarutobi, some stuffed animals and old toys in a corner.

"You must still be hungry Usagi-san," Miso said as she handed the bunny a large carrot for him to munch on. Miso herself had a few rice balls on a plate that she set on their coffee table. She also brought over two cups, one filled with tea the other one water. "How are your injuries? I'm not a healer so if there really bad we can take you to the Inuzuka's and have them treat you".

"They are fine thank you, I don't really have serious injuries just a bunch of small ones," Usagi's baritone voice said.

"Okay, just say the word and I'll take you to them. You can stay here as long as you need, I don't really have spare bed or anything but I can give you some spare blankets and pillows and we can make a little nest here for you," Miso signaled towards the couch.

"Thank you again for your kindness. If it's not too much trouble I would like to meet with your parents to discuss—"the rabbit trailed off as Miso's smiled dimmed ever so slightly and a pained look came in her eyes.

"Gommenasi Usagi-san, my parents are dead. It's just me and my Nee-chan but if you need anything just let me know!" The girl finished with a bright smile. Usagi nodded and the two then continued eating in silence mentally kicking himself.

The rest of the day seemed to pass by quietly as Miso stayed in the apartment and continued her study of funjutsu. Usagi roomed freely walking on his two back legs like a human as he listened to the radio, read a few of her spare books and sat outside by her garden. When the hare had first stood up and began moving Miso let out a squeak of surprise and almost dropped the dishes she was washing. She caught the dishes but when she moved to put them away she banged her elbow against the counter and hit her head against the cupboard.

"Miso! What's for dinner?!" Naruto yelled as he entered their home covered in mud and paint. Miso hurried over to him with a towel and directed him to their bathroom.

"Beef stew, there was a sale on meat at the market. Put your clothes in the hamper and I'll wash them later tonight after dinner".

"Beef stew is good too bad you didn't make ramen".

Miso sweet dropped at her brother, "You had ramen for breakfast today, and most likely lunch, and you at ramen yesterday for dinner…"

"Of course Ramen is the best!"

"The vegetables should be close to harvest and will only take another few days, how bout we wait till then and I'll make homemade ramen with our fresh vegetables?"

"You're the best!" Naruto shouted from the other side of the bathroom door, Miso could vaguely hear the water start filling the tub.

"Your brother," Usagi stated more than questioned from his position on the couch. Miso nodded and went back to the kitchen to finish cooking.

"Oh, I almost forgot! What would you like for dinner Usagi-san?"

"I'll just have what you're making".

"I don't know if that's healthy for y—"

"I can have normal food I'm not a normal rabbit".

"Oh…" she trailed off weakly, "I'm sorry if you didn't like the food I gave you earlier".

"Its fine I can eat animal food too and you didn't know. Is your brother always so excited?"

"Hai, that's what's best about him. He doesn't let anything get him down and he is always smiling. My Nee-chan is amazing," Miso had a faraway look in her eye as she talked about her brother a real smile was actually on her face. This smile unlike her other smiles lit up her who face and made the area around her seem to brighten.

"You smile a lot".

"Ne, is that a bad thing?"

"No".

They then fell into another silence. Usagi started looking at the girls funjutsu work on the table, Miso before dinner had started working on the storage scroll again. The hare was impressed by the immaculate work. The strong stokes of the paintbrush, the perfect placement and organization, the seal formation was near perfect. Usagi closed his eyes and placed his paws together in a praying like position "Kankaku" he said. The black behind his eye lids now filled with the faint chakra signatures of what was around him. He positioned his head towards the scroll and looked at the chakra in the ink. He was oddly proud that the little girl had the chakra balanced perfectly. While he was still in his sensory mode Usagi focused towards Miso who was cutting up vegitables. She had large amounts of unfocused chakra but aside from that she was normal. He didn't know what he was excepting but he was hoping there would be something else to help prove that she was a sensory type. He released the jutsu and took a deep breath getting used to the world again.

He then looked at the books and papers to the side of the scroll and began looking through those. He had to hold her personal notes really close to his face as he read as he left his glasses back in the summoning realm. He would usually just pop back and grab them but he couldn't with the scroll damaged as it was; if he popped back he wouldn't be able to return. That's why he was still here he needed to find someone to repair the rabbit scroll and he needed to find a new owner.

"It smells great, Miso," Naruto exclaimed as he came into the room he was no dressed in a plain black t-shirt and shorts and how the white towel hanging around his neck. No sign of paint and mud anywhere. He walked into the kitchen and started grabbing bowls and spoons to set the table.

"One more," Miso said adding another bowl and spoon to his pile of dishes. Naruto gave her a confused look but proceeded to set their table anyways. Usagi had cleared away the funjutsu stuff off the table and was now observing the siblings.

"Is the old man coming to dinner tonight?"

"No," the blonde girl looked at her brother then giggled as she realized Naruto didn't know that they had a guest. A white, fluffy, adorable, talking rabbit of a guest. Miso having one of her bouts of mischief decided to wait and see how long it would take her brother to realize that Usagi was there.

Once dinner was ready Miso took the stew and had Naruto carry the rice over to the table. She quickly dished everyone their servings. Naruto still hadn't grasped that Usagi was there. Usagi gave Miso a look and she just winked at the rabbit. He grinned evilly when he figured out what Miso was doing, Usagi loved pranks. Naruto spent the whole dinner talking animatedly about his pranks and what he did that day. Miso added a few words here and there but preferred to just listen to her Nee-chan. Finally after her Nee-chans fourth serving and Usagi's third. Miso started cleaning up the dishes.

"Nee-chan, you're going to need to clean up the mess you made in the bathroom. I'm sure theirs paint and dirt everywhere… Nee-chan? Nee-chan?" Miso placed the bowls down in the sink as she looked towards the kitchen table to her brother who wasn't answering her. Naruto was looking at Usagi with scrutiny.

"Where the hell did she come from?"

"I'm a male you dimwitted monkey," Usagi said as he took a sip of the tea that Miso had made.

"Augh! It talks!" Naruto fell out of his chair as he pointed towards the white hare, "Holy crap!"

"Nee-chan that's my friend Usagi-san. He will be staying with us for a while. Is that okay?"

"Sure, sure," Naruto waved her off and began throwing questions at Usagi at a rapid pace. He even started poking the poor animal a bit. The final straw was when Naruto picked the rabbit up by one of his hears and held him up to his face so they were making eye contact, "Aside from the angry eyes, he really does look like a girl".

"Nee-chan I don't thin—"

_Slap!_ Usagi promptly bitch slapped Naruto across the face causing Naruto to drop the rabbit and fly across the room. Usagi may have put a little bit of chakra into the hit. The hare felt guiltily immediately when he turned around and he saw Miso giving him the biggest puppy dog eyes ever, tears brimming in her eyes.

"Nee-chan," she cried as she ran over to her brother tripping on her way and falling unto Naruto who had just started getting back up. Now both siblings where on the ground, one for the second third time that evening.

"Ouch, Miso you need to be more careful," Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head and helped his sister off him. When they where both standing back up Naruto abruptly turned towards the rabbit and began yelling at it, "What the heck you stupid fuzz ball!"

"You were in my personal space and I felt violated and threatened so I reacted".

"So you slapped me like a girl! You really are a women!"

"Stop calling me a female!"

The two where now glaring at each other. Then all of a sudden they felt a gloomy presence in the room. They both turned towards the gloomy aurora and found Miso with her back facing them and her forehead pressed against the wall a few mushrooms growing on her a cold breeze went through the room making them both shiver, "What's wrong with being female? Females are just as good of males, stop acting like its a bad thing and saying derogatory things about them. I'm a female too…" She then turned to them with big sad eyes, "Females give birth, do you give birth?"

They both shook their heads no.

"Then females are better then males".

"Your right Imouto! I wish I was a girl, right Baka Usagi?"

"Right, I'm proud to be likened to a girl".

Miso smiled at them and skipped off as if nothing had happened and went back to doing dishes, "Nee-chan don't forget to clean the bathroom," she called from the kitchen.

Later that night when Naruto had gone to bed and Miso was still up looking through the living room window at the moon with Usagi when he made a decision that would change both of their lives. The moon light filtered through the room and the two of them sat in companionable silence.

"Usagi-san, I know you don't want to talk about your past summoner or the scroll but I have to ask… the wings…"

The rabbit sighed and put the book he was reading that was the size of him down, "The wings are part of my ability. Let me start from the beginning. All summoning scrolls are special in their own right. The rabbit scroll just happens to be sought after as much as one of the sage scrolls because the rabbit scroll is known as the lucky scroll or the scroll with a thousand summons…Rabbits breed quickly," Usagi's and Miso's faces tinted pink, "Because of that this scroll has tons of animals that can be summoned. After all more and more rabbits are born every year… my family is really big… Each rabbit not only has great chakra sensory but they each have their own special ability. So it makes this scroll more diverse than most. Generally those who study the art of sealing either tries for this scroll or toad scroll. So this scroll would be useful to you. Multiple summons of this scroll are skilled in funjutsu. Also Kashikoi, the largest most powerful summon of this scroll does have the ability to teach people to become sages. However, he has never taught anyone to become a sage".

"Wow, he must be really wise and hard to please".

"Not really, he's really lazy and prefers to eat and gamble. He just hasn't found someone worth the time. Our last contract holder misused the contract and the summons. So one day he summoned me and I decided to break the contract. We fought for some time and such an abrupt end to the contract between us caused the scroll to retain damage. That's why I'm still here instead of back at my home, I need to get the scroll repaired and then find a new summoner. Actually this is something I wanted to talk to you about, Miso, you can sense the chakra rhythms and natural energy like us rabbits can't you?"

"How did you know?"

"Your humming, you hum the rhythms around you. You're a special case, to have someone so attuned to chakra like a rabbit summon has never really been heard of. I would like you to be our new summoner. You've have shown me kindness and I can tell you have a good heart… I am also interested in your abilities".

"Why are you looking for a summoner?" Miso inquired.

"The honest truth is we rabbits get bored easily and things are much more interesting when we have a summoner. I could just destroy the scroll and return and no rabbits will ever be summoned again. However, everyone will murder me because we would be trapped from the human world and get extremely jaded," Usagi shrugged his shoulders, "your interesting abilities make you a prime candidate for us and prime entertainment".

Silence filled the room as they both looked out the window, "I'll do it".

"Good," Usagi smiled, "Now the first order of business that you have to do is repair the scroll".

"Hai, just one thing…. What about your wings? You never answered me".

"Some of us summoning rabbits are born with physical differences that pertain to our abilities. I'm Usagi the Messenger. I specialize in charka sensory, teleportation, scouting, communication, and knowledge. Most summoners like to have me with them in battle as I am able to aid them… The wings… really do nothing but allow me to fly. I assume it's to allow me to get to places quicker, there really more of a hindrance".

"I think their cute," Miso reached out her hand touched the wings causing Usagi to blush and look away.

"You can call me Usagi without the san, now that your my summoner".

"Okay Usa-chan".

"I said Usagi not Usa-chan, little girl".

"Yep, that you did Usa-chan".


	4. Chapter 4

_So this is my first real attempt at writing a story and I'll try to work on my Narration and give a little more substance with character interaction. But bear with me, its' my style of writing so it's hard to change but I'll try… Also, I'm still setting up the story so I'm trying to give back ground knowledge on my character and how she interacts so it might get a little wordy here and there. Thank you so much everyone that is reading the story. _

**Chapter 4**

The first time Shino Aburame met the Uzumaki siblings was at the entrance ceremony to the academy. He didn't really pay much attention. The only reason he really remembered them was because everyone else was by their family and being shuffled into the academy for the orientation. Except for two blonde twins that where holding hands. He remembered because the sister who was standing slightly behind her brother was wearing a bumble bee hair pin. Which was what originally caught his attention. Her blonde hair made the pin almost blend in with its coloring. Shino thought a butterfly hair pin would do much better in her hair, or maybe even a ladybug or dragonfly pin. Of course he'd prefer a beetle pin, it would be much more representative for instincts. _Defiantly a beetle would have been the best choice to go into her hair, _Shino thought.

After the few seconds of watching the twins he was quickly ushered into his seat to listen to the Hokage. He was later placed in their class but he didn't interact with them at first aside from a few things here and there with Miso. Although he did have a fascination of observing them. He observed lots of things and preferred sometimes to just sit in the back ground.

He observed nature and bugs of course but in reality most of his observations came from watching people. Some people where loud like cicadas. Others followed certain individuals likes bees and ants. He liked watching the human behavior and its pattern. The different habitats, the courting rituals, how girls could be in parasitical relationships with other girls. It was simply fascinating.

As an Aburame, Shino wasn't necessarily taught to be emotionless. The family just held logic in high regard and reared its clan members to have logical thinking. They had emotions and actually felt them deeply but by logic it was common sense not to show what they were feeling. Plus, high collars and glasses generally hid any facial expression. Because of this they tended to have quieter dispositions as opposed to others. That and it was only polite to their hives. If Aburme were loud like an Inuzuka it would disrupt the insects that where inside their bodies.

The Uzumaki twins where more interesting to watch then others. Their contrasting personalities: Naruto's hyperactive and aggravating personality like a Natts and Miso's butterfly like persona. While everyone else he could generally set into patterns the Uzumaki's he couldn't fix a pattern. When Naruto at times could be reckless, rude, loud, and annoying he would out of the blue show a moment of kindness and intelligence. When Miso would be gentle, kind, klutzy and a Big brother's girl there were moments when she would be slightly cold to others, distant and dare he say apathetic. He had seen it only once when she wasn't smiling and the cold look in her eye that made him want to take a step away from her and sent him reeling with thoughts. Mostly because it was so different from the girl who first day of class from when she stood up to say her name somehow tripped and hit her head on her desk…twice… Then apologized to everyone else as she rubbed her forehead.

One of their Sensies had made a comment about Naruto being trash and within a second the gentle smile that was always on Miso's face disappeared and was replaced by an apathetic face and a cold look towards the man but it was only there for a second and then in a flash it was gone. Shino would have missed it if he wasn't already studying the girl. The next day the man came to the school with a broken arm and said he had tripped while going down the stairs. But for some reason Shino knew that Miso had something to do with it. Especially when she had that smug smile directed at the teacher.

What was interesting this happened within only a first week of school. Within a week Shino was able to sort his classmates and analysis them. Miso he couldn't and within that one incident Shino threw everything he though he knew about the girl out of the window.

It was like everyone else put a wall around Naruto that he was constantly trying to take down but Miso purposely put a wall up. Because of the two separate thinking processes that the twins had, Shino could see distinct differences in their behavior. Naruto strove for attention and Miso shunned it. He wasn't a fool and he knew Miso was intelligent, he didn't know how intelligent but he knew that Miso's standing in the class was untrue. She wasn't average at best. She was easily in the top ten most likely ranking at ten. Most likely behind Sakura Haruno. What Shino didn't know was that she was actually number one when it came to skill.

How and why did he know this, because one time during lunch when he was sitting outside he overheard her helping her brother with homework. Her explanation showed clear and above average understanding on the topic. The next day when they got their homework and he happened to see her low marks Shino knew she was doing it on purposes. That intrigued him. And he knew that she was doing it for her brother and he knew she was doing it to avoid attention. He liked her second nature it was a spider hiding why it waits for its prey to fall into the net. While her outside persona was that of a gentle fluttering butterfly, her mind was that of a spider. Waiting, observing, watching, and biding her time for her strike.

Compared to the rest of his classmates where he found them lacking sometimes, Miso never did. Shino never got bored of Miso. In fact in a way they were almost friends. Sometimes if her brother was gone they would pair up on assignments. They would every once in a while sit in companionable silence while they ate lunch. One time when he was sick she brought him his homework. She always gave a slight wave and smile to him whenever she saw him. They didn't really talk but there was a silent understanding between the two that suited them just fine. This understanding came from their first year at the academy and what had started their Symbiosis.

It was their second week of school when Iruka had just left the room to make copies of worksheet, when all of a sudden Miso called surprisingly loudly to her brother who was across the room arguing with the Inuzuka.

"N-n-nee-chan—"

"Miso? Whats wrong," Naruto had his attention totally diverted from the Kiba which annoyed the young Inuzuka. They were literally right in the middle of an almost yelling argument about to throw some punches when he just turned around and started walking towards his sister.

"S-spider," she stumbled out her face pale as she gave a weak smile that was more like a grimace. She had raised her arm to show that a giant spider slightly smaller than a bottle cap but almost the size was crawling up her arm.

"Oh! Crap! Let me get a shoe or something and I'll smack it right off," Naruto was now frantically moving around them looking for something to kill the spider.

"Idiot don't kill it on your sister," Shikamaru drawled from the other side of the room. His head propped up with his hand on the table.

"Shut up! Here we'll just blow it off then kill it," Naruto said hastily as started rolling up some paper to kill the offending spider and using his mouth to blow air on the bug. Shino then stood up and started calmly walking over to them.

"D-don't kill it Nee-chan," Miso said a little strained as she still had a forced smile on her face and the spider was now crawling up her neck.

"Well what I'm supposed to do?"

"Put it out side, but for now please Nee-chan get it off of me. The spider has a family too, we can't just kill it," Miso was now so pale that she looked sick. The spider was now crawling on her face. Naruto started freaking out and raised the paper about to smack the spider and his sister. Shino vaguely heard Shikamaru say something about how Naruto was going to smack of his sister if he wasn't careful. Shino quickly evaded between Naruto and Miso and picked the spider right off her face and then walked towards the class window that was only a few steps away, to let it outside.

He then started back towards his seat, when he felt a tug on his jacket.

"Thank you, Aburame-san," Miso gave him her shaky kind smile with her face still deathly pale before her big blue eyes rolled back and she fainted. Shino barley caught her and for the first time showed shock on his face, which was basically just raising his eyebrows.

"Miso!" Naruto shouted as he then began to panic. He then began blabbering about Miso's large fear of bugs. Shino wasn't really listening he was a little concerned for the unconscious nine year old in his arms.

Shino ushered Choji who was the closet to him with his elbow to show that he needed help. The two gently picked up the girl - Shino holding her under her arms Choji by her feet. She was very light, and Shino didn't find that surprising for two reasons, one being she was petite for their age as she was shorter then Naruto only coming to Naruto's shoulder and the smallest in the class. Naruto a close second. And two, because Choji was helping him.

They carried her back over to her desk near the class window and set her down gently on the ground. Naruto had shoved his way past them and was now using the rolled up paper as a fan to give his sister air. Still blabbering and panicking about bugs and his sister. Naruto was so flustered that he accidentally smacked his sister in the face with the paper. Lucikly she didn't wake but Naruto went from being flustered to shear out panic. Iruka had come back in the class room and ended up hitting Naruto over the head to get them to calm down.

Which resulted in Naruto and Iruka arguing with each other. Kiba in a hissy fit because he was clearly forgotten. Shikamaru to mutter a troublesome then fall asleep. Choji opening a new bag of chips to watch the impending drama. And everyone else watching Naruto forgetting the girl on the floor with a red mark on her face where her brother had wacked her accidentally.

After that day, Shino's and Miso's Symbosis relationship began. Shino was grateful that while Miso was actually terrified of bugs she didn't like killing them and preferred to just leave them alone. (Although if she did see a bug she would start sweeting bullets and almost faint). Which Shino had to respect that. He also made sure to keep his insects at bay whenever they were together. Miso in return always made sure to be around him when he needed a friend. Shino wasn't sure how Miso knew when to be around him and when not to be around him but she did. They were an odd pair more than class mates less than friends.

Although he did get a small burst of happiness a few weeks after they started interacting, when instead of calling for Naruto to help with a bug as she stood on a chair far away from the creature she called for "Aburame san".

It was the following day of Miso calling for Shino that she literally ran into him while he was out shopping with his father. Shino quickly caught Miso and steadied her before she could fall. He however was slightly disappointed when he saw that she wasn't wearing her bumblebee hair pin. She was instead wearing an orange ribbon pin. He for a moment entertained the idea of buying her more bugged themed hairpins but quickly discarded the idea because they were still forming a tentative friendship. Although it was deeply tempting to get her a black beetle hairpin…

"You should walk more slowly. Why? Because you fall too often".

"Gommenasi, Aburame-san," Miso blushed and stepped away from her classmate.

Shino looked down at her passively and realized something was very different then most days he saw her a large white rabbit was laying on her head, "You own a rabbit?"

"W-w-what? Oh! No, Usa-chan is a friend of mine…"

The two then lapsed into awkward silence. Only interrupted when Shino's father Shibi rejoined them. "Is this a friend?"

"We are classmates and we do get along, friendship has not yet been determined".

"I see," Shibi then left abruptly left Shino and Miso and waved good bye to both of them.

"Shouldn't you be going with him?"

"He is letting us spend time together. Why? So we can determine if we are compatible to be friends. Let's go this way, you look hungry and I know a great tea shop".

"Okay?" Miso said hesitantly as she followed him, Shino walked a few steps ahead. They walked for only a few minutes till they came to a quaint café. Shino held the door open and Miso went through.

"This way. I hope you like this place, I've noticed that you always pack tea with your lunches and this place has remarkable tea".

"Hai, I love tea. Do you like it?"

"Well enough, I don't dislike it".

"Aburame-san, why do you want to attempt to be friends with me?"

"I don't see any reason not to try to be acquainted".

"What can I get you?" a dark haired waitress who looked to be in her early twenties said as she faced away from Miso purposely ignoring her.

"I'll have just have some green tea and Tendon".

"Right," the waitress went to move away but Shino stopped her before she could.

"You forgot to take her order".

The women sneered and gave a sharp fine in reply. Miso smiled weakly at both of them and ordered some Udon and Jasmine tea. The waitress stormed away from the table.

"She was very rude, if you want we can leave and find another restaurant with better mannered employees".

Miso gave him an assessing look, "Aburame-san you are very kind but you should understand a few things. People don't like me and my Nee-chan, this treatment is normal for me. If your friends with me you're going to see people act like this a lot; you might even get some of the treatment. So after today you should stop trying to be around me. There are other people more important and better who can be your friend," Miso gave him a closed eye smile that was supposed to be a reassuring smile. "Besides eventually if you'll act just like everyone else and I don't want to get hurt. So it might be bet-"

"I see you have concerns about a friendship. I too am not the most sociable and have my own reasons in being reluctant to make friends. However, in addressing your concerns you should know that I have yet to find you bothersome. I see no reason now or in the near future on why we shouldn't attempt some form of friends. You should also not make such hasty conclusions besides we are not technically friends yet," Shino said as he began drinking his tea that the waitress had brought. He was displeased to see her slam down the cups and tea pots almost spilling them.

"I'm just warning you. Me and Nee-chan aren't the same as everyone else, and you could get hurt".

"I am not concerned with such things. Besides from my own knowledge it is you who is scared to get hurt".

"Aren't you two just a bottle of sunshine," a deep sarcastic voice said. Shino lifted his eyebrows at the talking rabbit on Miso's head.

"Usa-chan!" Miso squeaked out a panicked expression coming on her face.

"Little girl just admit you want admit you want friends and get over your angst issues. We have more important issues at play. Boy, you're a clan kid right? You can get a blank summoning scroll easily right?"

"Usa-chan!" Miso blushed a deep shade of red and ducked he head a little bit, "Gommenasi Aburame-san. He can be a little rude…."

"Yes I can get a scroll. Why?"

"Ummm… We like scrolls?" Miso hurriedly said, Usagi wacked the girls head with his paw.

"You're horrible at lying. She's studying funjutsu and we need one but we don't have the ability to get one. Wanna start a friendship with this socially awkward girl give her the scroll and she'll make you lunch and eat with you for the full next week of school".

"I see," Shino said as he pushed his glasses up, "It will take me a couple of days but I can get it. I don't like leeks but everything else is fine".

"You're okay kid. You defiantly took me talking better than this girl and her idiot brother. She fainted and he fell on his backside". Miso reached up and pinched Usagi when he insulted her brother. Only to have the rabbit hit her with his paw again.

"Talking animals isn't totally uncommon and by your appearance it's obvious that your some type of summon," Shino replied coolly and calmly. Making Miso envious on how we was able to handle things.

Shino and Miso spent another hour in the restaurant eating their food and chatting idly. They were mostly in comfortable silence with a conversation here or there. Miso was still nervous as she'd had never been in another person's presence who wasn't Ji-chan or her Nee-chan this long. Yet she didn't mind Aburame-san. He didn't push her for conversation and just accepted her presences. He didn't even laugh when she accidently stabbed her eye with her chopsticks. She was a little worried about the bugs because of her irrational fear of them but she figured that they could at least be class buddies; hung out at school sometimes and then left each other alone.

The next week went by slowly and Shino and Miso ate lunch together every day. Naruto only joined them on Monday. She had had to give Shino some credit as he didn't complain about Naruto during that lunch as most would have just left. The rest of the week Naruto ditched school or had to remedial lessons during lunch. Leaving them alone, for the first time in Miso's life she was slightly annoyed with her brother because he was gone. Leaving her to interact alone with someone. She wanted her shield.

They usually just sat in companionable silence but she had to admit she liked the companionship. Usagi stayed home as she wasn't allowed to bring animals to school as she didn't have special permission.

Usagi didn't do nothing though. He usually snuck into the library and went to the top clearance levels where only Jounins and the Hokage could accesses and he would research funjutsu and taijutsu for her. He would bring pen and paper and copy the information. He knew he couldn't take the books and he only had so much time. So why Miso was at school for eight hours, Usagi researched and wrote the information in code that he and Miso had developed. He knew this information was classified and in the wrong hands it could do some damage. So he and Miso had coded all of the information they got and then placed a seal on it so only they could accesses it. Usagi was well versed in funjutsu but once they were able to fix the scroll he would go back and Miso needed to be able to further her research. When he wasn't there.

At the end of the week, Shino gave Miso the blank summoning scroll and Miso gave him a quick hug in thank you. Which Shino awkwardly returned by patting her back three times exactly and slightly robotically. They weren't best friends but they were at a point where they would sit together during break. Pair up on assignments if Naruto was gone. Exchange notes and give each other advice on homework. They didn't talk about their home life, they didn't hang out after school, and Miso kept her distance emotionally and mentally.

In hindsight she was making great progress considering Shino was her first ever friend. After all you couldn't expect her to just leap right into a friendship. In fact in Miso's opinion things were going a little too fast and a little too personal. So what they had now worked. Shino of course enjoyed their relationship, he liked that they had some distance as friendships could be overly complex. Plus he did like teasing he sometimes. Every once in a while he would purposely let a bug crawl over by Miso just to watch her react, most of the tie she fainted. It was quite entertaining for him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"I'll make some copies for you and give them to you tomorrow. Does that sound okay Aburame-san?"

"Yes. How is your funjutsu study going? I haven't seen Usagi in a while."

"Oh, he's back in the spirit realm. He doesn't come around as often as he used to but that's to be expected. I overheard that you're going to start your family jutsu soon".

"That is correct".

The academy had been in session for about five months now. Miso and Shino where still friends, which Miso secretly loved.

"—B-b-bug!" Miso exclaimed as she stumbled backwards into Choji who was walking behind them as they excited the building. She then bounced off him unto the ground and started scrambling back only to somehow do a backwards somersault and hit the wall. Choji just shrugged and continued walking as he at the apple slices that Miso had given him earlier.

Shino bent down to the ground and picked up the small caterpillar and walked towards a bush and set it down gently. He then returned to Miso and helped her up, "Thank you Aburame-san". Shino only nodded as he pushed his glasses up on his face a brief smile appearing. Miso knew that smile, he was laughing at her but she let it be as she really did make a fool of herself. He was about to say something when he saw orange in his peripheral vision. Tapping Miso on the shoulder he pointed over to her brother who was sulking at his usual spot on the swing. Miso waved good bye and walked over.

"Nee-chan," she greeted as she sat down at the base of the tree. Naruto didn't greet her. Instead they sat in silence till the academy emptied. Eventually her brother moved off the swing and sat by her, shoulders touching.

"Why?" he murmured. Tears brimmed in her eyes as she placed her head on his shoulder and gave a shrug. "What did I do wrong? Why do they hate us? Why are we different?" Her brother asked his voice slightly strained.

"I don't know," she whispered. It wasn't a lie, she knew about the nine-tails in her brother but she still didn't understand why they treated them like this. The past few months had been slightly better and she understood that it was because she had Shino and Usa-chan. She also knew that Naruto had gained Iruka-Sensei and he had made kind of friends with some of the misfits in their class. But in that moment with her brother she remembered and the pain and sorrow came back. It never really left, but in that moment she felt like someone had dug their hand into her cheats and was painfully squeezing her heart.

"I'm just so sick of it, what did we ever do to them? Why aren't we good enough? Why us?"

Miso sobbed, she wished she wasn't crying but someone had too. Her Nee-chan wasn't going to cry, he never cried. Oh, how she wished she was strong like him. She grabbed his hand in hers and just held it tightly while they sat under the tree.

After a long silence Naruto spoke again, "tell me a story, you haven't done that in a while".

"We haven't done a lot of things in a while. I'm sorry I'm not being a very good Imouto, Nee-chan". Miso squeezed his hand tighter her knuckles going white, she felt horrible. She hadn't been giving her Nee-chan as much priority as she used too. Between her training, school, her friendship with Shino, Naruto had somehow become a second thought. That scared her, he was supposed the most important person to her. He is the most important person to her. She needed to get her priorities in order.

"Stupid you haven't done anything wrong. Things are just different than they used to be," Naruto bumped her gently with his shoulder.

"I don't like different".

"I know you don't Imouto. Will you tell me a story?"

"I don't have a book on me?"

"That's surprising considering what you do have on you in that back pack of yours. Tell me one from memory, I know you've read to me so often that there has to be at least one memorized".

Miso nodded and she began her story as tears still streamed down her face as she stared at the academy from the distance. Naruto had his head back against the tree as he watched the sky, "You know their used to be a giant lake here. Just over there. It was huge and always had a bunch of ducks swimming around in it. Then one day the temperature dropped real fast and all of a sudden the lake just froze. So when the ducks took flight they picked the lake up, right with them, they say the lakes down somewhere near the land of waves. That's how they got their name you know, when the lake finally melted it fell on the land like a waterfall. They were going to call it the Land of the Waterfall but then everyone was going to attack them with such a silly sounding name. So they changed it to the Land of Waves because every time they see ducks now they wave at them and thank them for the water".

Miso looked at Naruto who was still silent then continued speaking, "Did I ever tell you about the oysters? They sit at the bottom of the ocean just waiting around all day. Then one day Kami picks on those oysters and puts a grain of sand in it. After a few years that oyster produces a pearl. Some oysters get jealous of that one oyster got a pearl and the others didn't. Some praised the pearl holding oyster. That oyster with the pearl, treasured its pearl because after years of waiting it finally was special. You know their once was a duck who couldn't lay an egg, so want to know what it did? Well it went to—"and on she speaking telling story after story till the sun began to set and the blue sky filled with orange.

By this point Naruto stood up and helped her sister up dusting the dirt off of her. He then grabbed her hand and the two headed home in silence. As they passed by the park they heard crying. Naruto let go of his sister's hand and walked over to the hunched figure of a girl with pink hair.

"Hey you okay?" he asked as he put his hand on his shoulder.

"Go away," the girl muttered as she stood up and ran away from Naruto. Naruto just watched her leave before he turned around and headed back towards his sister.

"Nee-chan?"

"That girl, she's been getting bullied. Yet, every time I try to help she just gets mad or runs away".

Miso remained silent for a few minutes lost in thought. _She wants help but only from the people she wants help from_,_ she could try to be friends with the other unpopular kids but she doesn't. She wants to be accepted by those who are mean to her but I guess that's what makes her like me and Nee-chan. _

"I'll see if I can do something about it tomorrow Nee-chan".

That night as the twins went to bed, Miso grabbed the blanket off her bed and slid into her brothers. Naruto moved over giving her enough space and just like they did back when they were babies they held hands as they fell asleep.

Ino loved her life. She had a great family, she knew that she scored in the genetics department when it came to looks, she had great social skills and she never really had anything to worry about. Ino knew that she had tendencies to be high maintenance but that never really bothered her, after all she was pretty enough to coast through most of her life.

The only thing that really bothered her was bullies. She didn't know why, but she was never one for bullying. Sure she would gossip, and every once in a while she would loser her temper. But she never went out of her way to bully someone. Yes she was demanding, and could be rude. But she was also honest and generally knew where to draw the line. She didn't like when people physically and verbally demeaned someone. But she never stopped the bullying either.

Ino saw how mean kids could be, she saw how they treated the Uzumaki twins, how food boy and lazy boy where teased. She saw how that Sakura girl would cry. Yet she never did anything to really stop it.

Granted Ino knew that when she lost her temper she could be mean and sometimes her blunt honesty could get her in trouble. Yet she never dished out anything that someone couldn't take. As a Yamanaka Ino was inherently good at reading people this allowed her to know naturally know what she can and can't say. So while she was a little selfish and rude she still had a good heart underneath her girly girl exterior.

To say Ino was surprised one day when Miso Uzumaki walked up to her and asked with a slight blush on her cheeks if they could talk in private was a surprise. Ino never really knew how she felt about Miso. Miso was undeniably cute and pretty and she knew that a few guys in there class secretly liked the girl. Though they would never admit to liking one of the monster twins. In that sense Miso was second to her when it came to looks. Ino was a more model like look and Miso was more of a cute doll. But Ino never really saw her as a rival. She generally left the girl alone and would notice her every once in a while from afar.

Ino was never really jealous of anyone, she was confident with herself. She understood that while she may be good looking and had potential to be a good kunoichi. She was an average human being. She could be nice, she could be mean, and she had her ups and downs. She wasn't a bad person, she wasn't an overly good person, she was just a person. She accepted that. What made her hesitant around the girl wasn't because of the adults and how they treated her and her brother. It was the fact that Miso was overly nice and for a person she was as close to being good as you can get. The few moments where Ino watched Miso were the few moments where her confidence of being an average human would waver a bit.

Ever since their first days of the academy Ino saw Miso and her little acts of kindness that she did. She unknowingly watched her as much as Shino did. She saw her befriend that bug creep, how she always slipped food boy food, how she would stand up for others only to be ridiculed herself. How she would stay after class to clean up. She would sometimes see her outside the academy feeding stray animals or attempting to help other people only to be rebuffed by most and accepted by a fair few. She would slip Hinta origami flowers whenever the girl was feeling down. How she would purposely take triple notes for herself, her brother, and Kiba. How she would smile at everyone. She never saw the girl do anything mean, say anything rude, lose her temper. Her personality was so different from Ino's that she wasn't sure how to act around her. Yes she was shy but she wasn't Hinta shy in fact it was more like the girl was just unsure how to act. Yes she kept to herself but she wasn't like Sakura who would cry in a corner. Miso had a silent confidence and for some reason it made Ino unsure of the girl.

She wasn't jealous, she didn't hate her; she just didn't know how to feel around the girl. So when Miso had walked over to her with a sheepish smile on her face, pink dusting her cheeks. Ino got slightly nervous, though she didn't show it and she was slightly annoyed that she was nervous. Sadly her annoyance is what showed.

"Miso?"

"Can I talk to you for a few minutes alone, Yamanaka-san".

"Sure," Ino stepped away from her group of friends who were giggling about this and that, boys, hair, clothes, etc. She shot them a warning look when one girl commented loudly in a faux whisper on Miso's attire. Ino wasn't a fan of Miso's clothes either but saying it out loud where the girl can hear it was a little over board. Ino would most likely wait till she was alone with a friend to then gossip about it. But it wasn't major gossip, more around the lines of 'her clothes are so weird' or 'she could at least try to dress cute'. Just a few lines in passing then she would drop the subject and talk about Sasuke. Miso maybe naturally cute but her taste in fashion was lax.

After all she wore a large white jacket that was slightly too big and hung crooked on her. The sleeves covered her hands and the jacket went down to her knees. She then wore boring black leggings and ankle length shinobi sandals. At least the clothes matched, but they were boyish and just swallowed her up.

"What's up?" Ino inquired when they were just out of hearing distance from the group.

"You know Haruno-san?"

"Ya, what about her? Is it that weird forehead thing? Listen if Yuki or maybe even Mai said something to her about that forehead thing, I'll talk to them," Ino made to move away but when she saw Miso shake her head no she stopped.

"Well, it's about the forehead thing. I was thinking that you too would get along really well… and you could maybe try to talk to her…You know say hi every once in a while… You're really popular and your great with people so if the other girls see that your nice to her then they would lay off on the teasing," Miso had a gentle smile on her face as she scratched the back of her head.

"Me?" Ino had a surprised look on her face, sure she had a lot of friends but surely she couldn't really do anything of Sakura.

"Hai, I know it's not my place to say but thank you for listening to me," Miso then did a quick bow and walked away that gentle smile still on the girls face. Ino watched as she went back to bug boy who was standing creepily alone in the shade looking foreboding. She had to stop herself from going to Miso's aid when the girl somehow tripped and was now sprawled on the ground but the girl quickly got up and walked over to Shino. Ino shivered slightly as she watched the two just stand there and look at everyone else creepily in the shadows. _Weirdos_, she thought.

At the academy that was the only conversation Ino would ever have with Miso, and it wouldn't be till a few days later that the girl took Miso advice. What Miso had said had played in the back of her mind, but when she saw Sakura crying at the park a few days after she couldn't help but remember Miso telling her that she could help the girl out. The next thing Ino knew she had strode right over to the crying girl. The next thing she knew she had Sakura following her around and opening up. The next thing she knew she was grateful that Miso had implanted the idea in her head.

Now like when most people do a good deed they feel good about. Ino felt extra good about helping Sakura. One she got a really good friend who she just seemed to click with. Two it made her feel better about being an average human being like for once she was kind of like Miso, and three the selfish part of her had to admit she liked that Sakura followed her around and did everything she did so she could to be like her.

Of course when their friendship would break over the whole Sasuke thing, Ino was upset. And it wouldn't be till years later that she would realize what a silly thing both her and Sakura had fought over. Neither would ever apologize but they would reach an understanding. Yet, she would always have a slight soft spot for Miso. After all Miso helped Ino become a slightly better person then she usually was that day.

Sakura on the other hand would never have a conversation with Miso at the academy. She would never really pay attention of the girl's existence. She was just annoying Naruto's sister and she would remain that way tell after they became genin. She would never know that Miso was the girl who scrubbed of Sakura's desks when people wrote mean things on them about her forehead. Or that she was the girl who pushed Ino into becoming her friend. Or that she was the one who would leave clean handkerchiefs on her desk for Sakura to use or the spare pencil for when Sakura forgot hers. She would never realize all the simple acts of kindness that happened to her would stop when Sakura had started being mean to Naruto. Sakura never paid her any attention and in an odd sort of way Miso would never have it any other way.

"Hey, Miso," Naruto said as he continued to scrub of the paint on the school building.

"Hmm?" Miso said absent mindedly as she brought another bucket of soapy water over, and began to dunk her sponge in the bucket, as she hummed.

"Thanks for helping out," Naruto looked away as he said this and acted fully invested in his cleaning chores.

Now most would think that her brother meant 'thanks for helping me clean up my prank' but Miso knew that he really meant, 'thanks for helping out Sakura'.

"Hai… Nee-chan… I know you painted the school as a joke… but how did you get paint on the ceiling?" Miso pointed towards an actually really well painted picture of some of the anbu doing sexy poses on the ceiling.

Naruto laughed ad then began his long detailed summary of the events that somehow involved a pig, some flower, a ladder, being chased, ramen and paint. Miso listened attentively and when they were all done cleaning up Naruto's prank she treated her brother to ramen at Ichiraku.

"What's so funny Miso?"

"Nee-chan," Miso giggled out as she held up a green bean at the ramen stand, "What did one bean say to another bean? How you've _Bean_!" Miso continued to giggle until her face turned red and she had to take deep breathes in attempts to calm herself.

"….It' not really that funny…." Naruto said as he sweat dropped at his sister who was clutching the counter as she was doubled over in laughter.

Teuchi laughed at the joke right along with Miso, but Ayame just stared blankly at the girl as if she'd grown a second head, "I didn't know she had a sense of humor, but I guess she'd have to have one to survive Naruto," Ayame mused quietly to herself.


	6. Chapter 6

_I am so embarrassed about the whole Nee-chan, Nii-san thing! Thanks so much for pointing it out, I'll try to fix it when I have the time. I'm not really sure how to fix chapters yet with out taking them down then loading them back up.. Also, Miso's name…. I know it soup, I did it on purpose because Naruto's name is also a food, fish cake or something. So I figured, why not…(I know Naruto is named off of one of Jiraiya's book characters) Plus when I was brainstorming this story and what to name my OC, I happened to be watching Naruto and Naruto said something about Miso soup… _

_So in my head a joked about her name being Miso…. Then it stuck and I couldn't imagine the character without the name. I could have found a different name with food meaning but Miso was just stuck in my head. Plus I thought it would be humorous… and I have a whole thing planned with the name later on with her name. Thanks to all of those who are reading my story;)_

**Chapter 6**

Two figures walked down the lane at a leisurely pace. Both with slightly slouched figures with bored expressions on their face. Shikamaru's expression was more of one of bored doom then one of passive boredom that his father had.

"You could at least attempt to look happy," Shikaku said to his son.

"Does it matter?"

"You act like going to the academy is the worst thing in the world," Shikaku drawled with a grin on his face as he reached down with one of his hands to ruffle his son's hair. Only to receive an annoyed expression on Shikamaru's face.

The both returned to companionable silence, when a blur of orange ran by bumping into Shikamaru's shoulder causing the boy to stumble slightly. He gave an annoyed look to the blonde boy who was running madly towards the academy. "Troublesome," he muttered when he realized it was Naruto.

"Nii-san, wait up!"

"Sorry, Miso," The blonde and orange blur slowed his pace and turned around with a silly grin on his face.

Another blonde figure appeared at a much slower pace. She quickly turned towards Shikaku and Shikamaru and gave a deep bow, "Gomennasai". Her blonde hair in low tied pigtails almost touched the ground with her deep bow. Shikaku kept his expression neutral except for one eyebrow that was raised. He tensed slightly when he realized who the little girl was.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered.

"No need to worry," Shikaku replied with a lazy drawl.

The blonde girl raised her head and gave a gentle smile that was unbelievable adorable. Now those of the Nara clan where never really people that admitted things were cute or adorable, but right now looking at the little blonde girl, both Naras had to admit that adorable and cute where the only ways to describe her. She had bright long blonde hair that went to her waist and was tied in low pig tails. A bobby pin with oddly enough a ramen bowl decorating the end of the pin, pinner her bangs to the side. She had large bright blue eyes that seemed slightly too big for her heart shaped face.

The little girl bowed again and gave a quick thank you as she began to slightly jog over towards the other blonde kid. Only to stop half way there to help an elderly lady who had dropped a bag of groceries and had her vegetables and other foods sprawled across the ground.

Shikamaru then noticed something odd. First off his Dad for once seemed oddly tense, the crowd of people around him seemed to have underlying anger for some reason, and they were whispering and watching the girl who was helping the old lady. His mind started absorbing information and filtering it trying to figure out why everyone seemed wary and/or angry at Miso. He'd been wondering for a while why the Uzumaki siblings where treated so bad. At first he just let it be as it was too troublesome to really deal with. But admittedly he liked Miso compared to a lot of people in the class. She wasn't loud or annoying, nice to Choji, and she left him alone. In his books she was great much better then pushy Ino. Of course he did realize she was slightly troublesome as she tended to always be in some sort of trouble.

Choji told him once that he had to help her out a tree because she went up to see a birds nest but got stuck. And believe it or not she was off doing things like that often. Shikamaru didn't associate with her more then he needed too, and more then he should, considering how troublesome she really was. Running off in the middle of class, constantly doing things for other people, her brother was Naruto (enough said), being around her would result and way too much work. So he settled with stepping in sometimes if her bully's became a little too much to handle and he even walked her home a few times at night. She seemed to always be walking home alone during the dark, luckily he was usually coming back from Choji's house when he found her so he didn't have to go too far out of the way to make sure she was safe. One word described Miso, Troublesome. His thinking was cut off as he heard the girl give a startled cry as the old lady slapped her.

"Get away!" the women hurriedly grabbed her bags and began to walk away. The blonde girl had tears in her eyes and a large red mark on her face but that didn't deter her from picking up a bag of chips that old lady forgot and going over to her and hand the bag over. The old lady just shoved her away, "Get your filthy hands away from me".

"Hey! Get away from my Imouto you mean old hag," Shouted Naruto. He was now standing between his sister who had fallen on the ground and she was oddly fingering the pin in her hair as she sat. The lady just sneered at him and walked away.

"Hey Miso, you okay?" the boy asked as he crouched down in front of his sister examining her cheek. The girl continued to finger the ramen bowl bobby pin in her hair.

"Hn," she replied as she then sat up and hugged her brother, "I'm okay. As long as my Nii-san is here".

Another thing Shikamaru knew about the siblings was that Miso had a big brother complex. Troublesome. The two siblings stood up and began walking, only to have Miso stop again and walk back to the Naras she quickly held up the bag of chips and gave it Shikamaru before running back to her brother.

"Dad," Shikamaru drawled in a question with a raised eyebrow at the bag of chips. Yet both knew his question was actually about the Uzumaki siblings and the treatment they received.

"You'll understand when you're older." Shikaku replied as he watched the blonde siblings with a calculative look.

"Troublesome".

He didn't really want to think about why she gave him the bag of chips, it was too much work, so he left it be. When he got to school and Choji asked why he had a bag of chips and if he was going to eat them. Shikamaru understood that she didn't give the chips to him she gave it to him to give to Choji. He was slightly annoyed that he had to play messenger with chips but he knew why he was the messenger. Miso didn't have friends, she had her brother, and sometimes Shino. She didn't like being around other people. Granted she seemed to be always doing something and she was constantly doing little things for people but she never stayed too long in their presence.

Choji adored Miso, not because he liked her or thought she was cute. In fact Choji was pretty indifferent about how Miso looked. It was because she was constantly giving him food. If Naruto didn't show up for lunch, Choji got Naruto's lunch. If she couldn't finish hers, Choji got it. Sometimes she would just bring snacks for Choji to eat. It was slightly amusing, it was almost like Choji was her pet as she was constantly feeding him food. Not that Choji minded.

While Shikamaru went on with his day as usual. Miso's day became rather irregular. Firstly Naruto was in a rather foul mood and was now being extra loud and then Shino was acting strange. After Miso had been slapped she and her Nii-san continued to school. When they entered the classroom everything that's when things got weird.

"Listen up! I'm going to be Hokage so if anyone messes with Miso or me you better watch out! Believe it!" Then Naruto started arguing with a few other kids in class. Miso decided it would be best to stay out of it and walked over to Shino.

"Good morning Mi—" Shino had stopped talking immediately. Miso gave him a confused look when she started feeling Shino's charka pulsating angrily and she could feel a dark aura coming off of him. She took a step back in surprise.

"A-A-Aburame-san what's wrong?"

"Who did that to you?" Shino sad darkly the light around him started to darken and the insects in his body began to vibrate.

"Who did what? Oh! Don't worry about it, things like this happen all the time," Miso waved her hands frantically in front of her.

"Tell me who did it, and I'll give swift retribution," Shino said as bugs began to come out of his sleeves. He immediately regretted letting his bugs come out.

"Bugs… lots of bugs…" Miso's eyes rolled back in her head and her body fell backwards hard unto the ground. Naruto who was in the middle of yelling at Sasuke when he stopped and ran over as soon as he heard her buddy hit the ground.

"Miso! Don't die! Crap! What happened? Elevate her legs or is it her head…. Not good, not good…. Maybe we should do the Heimlich…"

"Calm down she just fainted," Iruka said as he walked over to the crowd that was no gathered around the poor girl lying on the ground, "…again…"

By the time Miso woke up class had already started so she quickly got out her work and started taking notes. By the time lunch rolled around Naruto had stopped hovering by her side making sure was okay and was now running amuck. Miso had to admit she was sad her brother left her and briefly contemplated fainting again just to have his undivided attention. What stopped her from doing it was the sulking Aburame.

"Aburame-san?" she gently asked Shino who was standing in the shadows away from everyone facing the wall.

"Aburame-san…" she said his names a few times but didn't get a reaction out of him he just continued to sulk, "Listen… it's not your fault that I fainted, I just have a weak constitution…. And I'm sorry if I offended you for fainting at the sight of your bugs… Oh! I know what will make you feel better, I made a batch of cookies last night. Your favorite, let me just get them". Miso then took her back pack off and began rifling through it for white chocolate chip cookies. Exclaiming in delight when she found the bag she hurriedly gave it to Shino who was now at least facing her. He took the cookies and muttered a thank you.

Miso was about to try talking to him again when a small piece of paper fell out of her back pack. When Miso bent down to pick up the colored paper she gasped, "I completely forgot! There's a sale at the General Store! By Shino-chan," Miso said hurriedly as she wrote a note for Iruka-Sensei explaining why she was ditching class, grabbing the coupon that had fallen on the ground she quickly fled the building. Shino for the rest of the day was in an oddly happy mood that worried the rest of the class as he was smiling to himself and eating cookies and his bugs where twirling around him at one point. One kid even swore he heard the Aburame mutter "Shino-chan". Needless to say the class gave him a larger birth then they usually did.

Iruka had to let out a sigh of exasperation, he didn't know whether to be annoyed with the girl or not. It wasn't her first time ditching class and she was defiantly not disturbing the peace like Naruto usually did. But for some reason the girl had it in her head that it was okay to ditch school as long as she left a note. Some of her excuses could match Kakashi's explanations on why he was late. But what frustrated Iruka the most was that her excuses where actually true.

One time Miso gave him a note when she walked into class drenched in water, the note read something along the lines of '_saw a black cat cross my path and didn't correct my path so I fell into a pond…who knew…'_

Miso of course was on cloud nine with her find at the market. Her arms where filled to the brim with bags of groceries as she hummed along the dirt road back to her apartment. Her progress was stopped when she heard a distressed noise, looking up the blonde girl saw a little black cat trying to get down from a tree but failing to do so. Before Miso could really think she somehow was already up the tree with her groceries and backpack laying at the base. Yet by the time the girl was high enough to attempt to help the poor cat the cat had already figured out how to get down. Miso then decided to climb back down but one problem hampered her… She was stuck….

So she was left clutching to the large branch for dear life as she waited for someone to stop and help her. She hoped Choji came along again, he was always nice about helping her out of trees.

Shikamaru had mostly forgotten about the incident earlier that today till he happened upon a scene that was troublesome.

"Choji," he drawled as he sluggishly walked up to his friend.

"Oh, hey, Shikamaru. Let me just help Miso out of the tree and then we can go". Choji shoved a few more chips in his mouth for preparation for the jutsu he was going to perform.

"Again? Didn't you already help her out of a tree?"

"This makes the third, I think". Choji said as he extended his enlarged hand towards the tree allowing Miso who was clutching the branch like a koala to let go and fall softly in Choji's palm.

"It's the fourth.. Thank you Akimichi-san…" Miso blushed as she began to hurry pick up her things.

"How did you get stuck in there anyways," Shikamaru asked through a yawn and a quirked eyebrow.

"I was helping a cat…"

The two boys remained silent as they gazed at her. While she just shrugged weakly. Shikamaru raised a hand before he could stop himself and began pulling leafs out of her hair making the girl an even darker shade of red at the close contact, "what a drag," he muttered. Then when he let the last leaf fall to the ground he watched with slight amusement as the girl began to giggle.

"What's so funny?" Choji asked.

"I'm _re-leafed_ that it's over, I was _stumped_ how to get done, I _wooden _have expected such help…. I _willow_ you one," Miso's face was red from laughter at her own puns. She was still giggling as she waved to the boys and continued on her way. Leaving two deadpanned looks at her antics.

"Those aren't even funny… troublesome…."

"Shouldn't we help her with her groceries?" Choji said through a mouthful of chips.

"….What a drag…."

Shikamaru and Choji then spent the next ten minutes carrying Miso's bags back to her apartment. Shikamaru was also revaluating how he felt about the girl as the whole way back she kept giggling and making those stupid tree puns. She was defiantly worse than Ino. Troublesome.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

You would think that since Miso specialized in taijutsu along with fuinjutsu that she would run into Gai and Lee. Well, you're right she eventually met them about a month into her second year at the academy. In fact, because of those two Miso was able to develop her own taijutsu. Miso was small and even with strength training she could only get so strong, her body would always be on the weaker side. The only reason she started to attempt it was because she didn't know any ninjustus and she didn't' have anyone there to train her in weapons. Besides she need to get stronger to protect her brother. So when she started learning the basic stances it was the sole purpose of being able to support her Nii-san. Later evolved into pure interest into becoming a master on the subject.

The stances came naturally to her and she understood taijutsu easily. However as said before, her body and it size wouldn't be able to pack a powerful punch against opponents. Sure she could easily take down someone her age, but that was for now, soon in the future her opponents would not be playfully fighting. They would get stronger, and her basic skill wouldn't be enough. However her lithe form was fast and flexible.

So she started researching taijutsu from any book she could get her hands on. She was able to gain large knowledge base but without someone teaching her she could only get so far. So she settled with strengthen her body. She woke up every morning and would work and strength, agility and speed drills and then would relax and watch the sun rise. She then would practice different techniques; somewhere easy to master others not so much. While she was getting faster, more flexiable and had gained some strength she was still not really getting anywhere without a teacher. That was until she happened to run into Lee and Gai when they were doing one of their daily youthful runs through Konoha.

It literally happened in a blur of movement. One minute she was walking then the next minute she had tripped on air and face planted on the ground. Then before she could move Lee and Gai came running through and almost ran over her. She let out a sequel in fright and curled into a ball.

"Oh, Little Lotus Blossom, I am so sorry that our Youthful spirit was almost too much for you," Gai cried as he picked up the little girl holding her up in the air. As if reenacting lion king when Simba was presented to the animals.

"It's okay, can you please put me down, gomennasia," Miso said weakly with her signature smile on her face.

"Such Youth Little Lotus Blossom" both Gai and Lee yelled, tears streaming down their faces. Gai was now swinging the little girl around as he started exclamations about youth. Miso wanted to cry as he body was flung to and fro. A white haired man with a mask covering face happened to be walking by when he told Gai he should put her down. Then with flourish Gai threw her up and the air (Miso let out a shriek) and then caught her before placing her down on the ground. He then proceeded to challenge his 'Eternal Rival'.

Miso attempted to start walking away when Lee was suddenly in front of her "Lotus flower, I must deeply apologize for almost running into you with my youthful spirit. I shall endeavor to protect you with my taijutsu".

Miso had been sweet dropping like mad and slowly backing away till she literally backed right into Gai. Her whole body tensed till she heard Lee, say the words taijustu and how amazing Gai was.

"Wait your training in taijutsu?"

"Yes! With the amazing Gai sensei!"

Then both Lee and Gai started going on some rampage about youth and how amazing Gai was when Miso interrupted them. "Can I train with you too?" both paused and then started exclaiming in happiness about their 'little lotus flower of youth'.

That is how her basic skills and vast knowledge where finally able to be transformed into sound technique and style. She would meet with Guy and Lee four times a week after school to do training. And then spend the rest of week doing her own training. She honestly liked the two, yes they were goofy, yes they were extreme, but she honestly liked them. She liked them more then she liked Iruka and about as equal as she liked Shino. They were honest, they didn't judge, they reminded her of Naruto. The training was hard and sometimes she just wanted to give up, but they were always there cheering her on.

"If I cannot do 300 pushups then I shall do 600 sit ups!"

"Such youth! Come along Lee we shall run around the village on our hands! Endeavor we shall in this Spring Time of Youth and we shall show our youth and encourage others, forward Lee"

"What a brilliant idea!" Lee had stars in his eyes and a small tear trickled down his face.

"Youth…" Miso muttered as she dragged her tired ragged body to follow them. She literally felt like 'youth' had hit her with tree then rolled her down a mountain only to burn her alive in a volcano. _Youth was a bastard, _Miso grumbled in her mind. It took her three tries to be able to do a handstand and then it took her a full minute of balancing on her hands and channeling a little bit of chakra into her muscles to give her a boost. Soon she was following the Green Beast and Lee at the same pace around the village.

The last lap around the village Miso was so zapped of energy that she literally rolled herself back to their training grounds. Gai and Lee where so impressed with her first attempt at her training with them and her new style of getting around that they began hugging each other.

"Look at our Little Lotus Blossom so adorable laying their on the ground!"

"Gai Sensei she has such stamina, such dedication such…."

"YOUTH!" they both exclaimed at the same time.

"Miso, after today I can see your dedication. That is why I have a gift for you," with a large pearly white grin, Gai out of thin air held up a tight green spandex suit.

"…I don't know what to say…" she murmured in awe of the stylish suit, the moment she saw them in the cool suit she wanted one. With energy renewed Miso grabbed the suit dashed to the line of trees and came back wearing the outfit. A large grin on her face as she admired her knew outfit. Gai silent marveled on how much she acted like her father, that smile reminded him so much of the fourth.

"She is so adorable!" Lee squealed as he picked her up in a hug.

"My cute little pupils, such Youth you have shown to honor this occasion we shall do 500 kicks".

"I will do 600 kicks!"

"I-I will do 700 kicks," Miso stuttered out with a gleam in her eye that matched Lee's and Gai's. Then they all shouted Youth and started working out again. And that's how cute adorable little Miso Uzumaki was corrupted but Gai and Lee. Imagine the cat masked jounin's shock when he came to get her and bring her to the Hokage, upon the Hokage's request. When he finally found her yelling "Spring Time of Youth," with Gai and Lee. Granted Miso's yelling wasn't really yelling for people like Gai, Lee and Naruto was it was their indoor voice she was using.

When he appeared in front of them requesting her presence, Gai stood in front of the anbu with a blinding grin, his sunset genjutsu working, and exclamations of his new 'youthful little lotus blossom'. Miso clapped at Gai's display with actual admiration in her eyes. Lee had tears at how awesome his teacher was. The anbu quickly grabbed Miso and was out of there as fast as possible heading towards the Hokages. Tenzo in that moment wished that he would have intervened somehow and kept the little girl away from Gai but it was too late now and she was sucked into his black hole of youth.

Upon arrival to the Hokages office, Tenzo left the child rather reluctantly as he now had concerns for the girl and the future she was going to have running around looking like Gai. Now she needed to die her hair and cut it and BAM. She would be one step closer to becoming a female Gai. Tenzo had to purge the image of female Gai from his brain. Miso gave the anbu a curious look when the anbu that was carrying her like a sack of flower suddenly flinched.

"Ji-chan? Nii-san?" Miso questioned as she sat down in one of the chairs in the office next to Naruto who looked like he was pouting. The Hokage looked at her with a shock at her green spandex outfit.

"Miso! What the hell are you wearing?!" Naruto yelled at his sister, she didn't look horrible in the spandex in fact she still looked adorable but she was still wearing dark green spandex full body suit. Naruto took off his orange jacket and made his sister put it on.

"It's my new training gear, it's to help show of my youth, Nii-san".

"Youth? What the heck are you talking about?"

"The Spring Time of Youth, something that everyone shall work towards. Live your life with Youth Nii-san, live it with youth".

The Hokage had his head in his hands and in the moment felt like he had failed Minato and Kushina. He had originally called them here to talk about Naruto's interesting new jutsu and now he had discovered that cute innocent Miso was brainwashed by Gai. Kushina would skin him alive if she were here, her little girl was wearing a dark green spandex suit and spewing things about youth.

"Miso, how long have you known Gai?" the Hokage said as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Five hours," she replied. Sarutobi's jaw dropped slightly. Miso the girl who was so closed off had only known Gai for five hours and he had sucked her into his madness. He didn't know whether to commend the eccentric jounin or punish him for ruining Miso.

"Why are we here Ji-chan?"

"The Old Man's just jealous about my new awesome jutsu".

"Nii-san? You made a jutsu?"

"Ya, you've been doing all that studying and stuff so I figured I should do something too."

"What's the Jutsu?"

Naruto grinned a fox like grin then did a few hand seals and yelled, "Sexy Jutsu!" An older female version of Naruto was now in the room.

"That's amazing Nii-san," Miso said in a reverent awe. At his sister's encouragement he began doing different poses to show off his transformation, Miso clapped and commended him on the technique. Sarutobi had a slight nosebleed but felt overwhelming guilt as he realized that if Minato was still alive and saw his children acting like this. His son with such a vulgar jutsu and his daughter just clapping along with it Minato would literally disembowel him. Forget Kushina's anger, Minato would have destroyed him. Where did he go wrong with the children?

"Naruto," the old man said in warning. Naruto puffed back to his usual form an angry scowl in place. "With recent developments…." Hiruzen trailed off thinking of the sexy jutsu and now Miso's love of spandex that could become a problem in her teen years when her body filled out a bit. "I've decided it's time we have a talk…."

"Talk?" Naruto inquired.

"Yes, the Talk. You see Miso and Naruto as I am the closes paternal figure you have and your guardian this duty falls to me. You see when a man loves a women—"

After an hour of hell Miso and Naruto left the Hokages office with a haunted look in their eyes. They didn't make eye contact with anyone on the way home and they stayed three feet apart as much as possible.

"Imouto, you aren't allowed to grow up and you aren't allowed to date".

"Hai".

Miso refused to take off the green spandex suit saying it was stylish and missing the point that it was ugly and that when she was a teenager the skin tight suit would be a little to revealing. So Naruto the one who actually bought Miso's clothes and more taste then she had, insisted that she still wear her large white hoodie over the spandex suit as a compromise. So instead of black leggings it looked she just had green ones and her usual shinobi sandals.

Naruto didn't use his sexy jutsu for a month after the talk with Hiruzen and when he did he changed the appearance of the transformation so it didn't look so much like him or his sister. In fact what got him to use the jutsu again was when the class was starting clones.

"Naruto! Stop messing around and try again," Iruka said annoyed.

"Fine!" He yelled before henged with his sexy jutsu causing Iruka's jaw to drop open then get in a fight with Naruto. The rest of the class of course laughed at their antics. Iruka hit Naruto over the head and then told Miso to transform hoping that she would at least do better than her brother. Yet, when a white quivering blob appeared on the floor where a clone was supposed to be Iruka gave up for the day.

Both Naruto and Shino gave her odd looks. Naruto because he knew his sister could do the jutsu as he had seen her use it before with Usagi. Shino because he knew she was faking not being able to do a clone. Yet neither mentioned it and continued on with their lives. Although Shino did find her drastic color change in leggings interesting. When he asked about all she said in an awed whisper as "Youth". Shino decided it best to let the subject drop.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Kiba's stomach growled and Akamaru whimpered. Kiba was in foul mood. His sister was a pain in the butt, school sucked, and he forgot his and Akamaru's lunch. He was currently sitting at his desk scowling when all of a sudden he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He turned his head fast to only knock it hard against the other persons head sending the person stumbling to the ground. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw Miso Uzumaki sitting on the ground holding her head.

"Gommenasai Inzuka-san, I shouldn't have stood so close".

"You okay?"

Miso nodded and then reached behind her and took off her worn black back pack that she always had with her. She then reached in and pulled out a small lunch box and a bag of dog food. "Here, you can have this spare lunch, and I have some animal food on me. It's not the best stuff but… foods food right?"

"Are you sure I can have this? And why in hell do you have dog food with you?" Kiba took the items and placed them on his desk.

"Well its actually animal food, so any animal can eat it. I have it so when I see strays animals that look hungry I can just give them food". Before Kiba could say anything else, Miso had bowed slightly and gave a quick goodbye and hurried off.

It wasn't till later that day that he got home did he realize that no one just carried around a spare lunch. And he only realized it when Hanna had pointed it out.

"I made some onigiri for you. You must be hungry after all you left your lunch since you were running late," Hannah said flippantly as she sprawled out along the couch a magazine in hand as she flipped a few pages.

"I was late because you took forever in the bathroom. And don't worry someone gave me there spare lunch box," Kiba held up the small black box that had cartoon bunnies printed on it. He then went over to the kitchen to clean it out.

"Spare lunch?" Hanna asked now intrigued, "So what type of girl likes a loser like you?"

"What?!" Kiba yelled and almost dropped lunch box he was cleaning out, "No one likes me she was just being nice!"

"Come one who carries around a spare lunch box? It so cute looking, is she cute?"

"Well she does, stop getting stupid ideas in your head," Kiba huffed as he stormed to his room, embarrassment clearly on his face. The underlying thought that Miso was kind of cute.

As Kiba laid on his bed thinking his mind wandered back to Miso and her lunch box. He couldn't be sure but he was almost positive that it was her lunch she gave him. He felt guilty about it but she offered and it was too late now to change things. Besides there was still a chance that it was a spare lunch box. He knew that she tended to give Choji her brother's lunch if he wasn't there, so maybe she just gave him Naruto's. Yet that didn't make sense in Kiba's mind because the lunch box was obviously girly and Naruto didn't ditch class that day. But why would she give him her lunch? They barely knew each other… of course there was what Hanna had said about her liking him that niggled in the back of his mind. But he pushed it away as fast it came. It wouldn't matter if she liked him after all they were just kids and dating was lame. So Kiba concluded that she just happened to have a spare lunch that day in her black bag.

When the worn bag came to mind Kiba began to wonder when the girl didn't have the bag around. She always had that bag on her and only took it off so she could sit down comfortably. Why did she need it? After all they had cubbies to hold stuff in while they were at school. The more he thought about the stupid bag the more Kiba got annoyed that he couldn't think of a reason the girl would want to carry around such a thing. So the next day Kiba approached her with goals in mind, to thank her for the lunch, return the box, and to ask about the bag.

"You want to know why I carry the bag around." She blinked in mild surprise, "well I like having things on hand". Kiba grumbled at that stupid kind grin on her face that she always wore. Seriously, how could anyone be constantly smiling.

"Why not use the cubbies? Also thank you for the lunch," Kiba handed her back the clean lunch box.

"It's easier," She grinned up at him. _She's still grinning? Doesn't she have other facial expressions_, grumbled Kiba.

"Whats in the bag any ways?"

"Mine and Nii-san lunches, a folder with our school work, a first aid kit, my wallet, keys, animal food, and some other stuff," Miso said with her hand to her chin in a thinking position.

Kiba nodded and walked away, before he realized that he had inadvertently gained information. Miso had said 'Hers and Naruto's lunches' not "hers, Naruto's and a spare'. Kiba felt a slight pang of guilt when he realized that he had indeed ate her lunch yesterday. But as quickly as it came he squashed it.

Kiba and Miso went back to not really talking, only interacting when he got into some spat with her brother and she had to interfere. Or if saw her as she waited for Naruto to get out of detention. Although Akamaru had taken a big liking to her and about twice a week he would wander off towards Miso where she would lavish his dog in attention. If it where anyone else Kiba might have been annoyed, but he let it be. It wasn't till a year later when they were twelve did he find out the real reason she carried around the bag.

Miso had left her bag unattended as she went to the restroom, Naruto was off doing something other than attending school. Shino had called in sick that day. So the bag sat alone on her desk. Kiba thought nothing of it till he saw some kids begin to rifle through her bag and where pulling things out.

"What do you think you're doing?" Shikamaru drawled from his spot across the room before Kiba could say anything. He vaguely heard Shikamaru say troublesome.

"None or your business," Hiro one of their class mates said as he began to eat one of the lunches she packed. Another boy began ripping up her homework pages. At the first rip, Kiba leapt in to action snatching the torn papers away and growling slightly.

"What the hell?!" Kiba growled.

"Its fine, we do this all time she doesn't really do anything," before Kiba could think he punched the kid. The kids who were messing with her stuff scattered and the boy had tears welling his eyes and a swollen cheek.

"Why are you standing up for her? She's weird just like her brother, what does it matter what we do?"

Before he could say anything else, a familiar calm voice spoke, "I'm human too". The whole class stilled with silence and they turned to find Miso back from the bathroom a sad smile on her face, she slowly walked over and quickly picked up her scattered possessions, and gently took the torn papers from Kiba. "How unyouthful," she muttered as she left the room. After that Iruka Sensei had come back into the room and began the lesson again. Not even batting an eye at the empty table of the Uzumaki's. Figuring that they both had just ditched. Although he did find it odd that there was no note and the class was oddly subdued.

She walked slowly down the school hallways when Sasuke dashed passed her, she could hear the noise of his fan girls chasing him. Before she knew what she was doing she grabbed Sasuke and pushed him into the storage closet.

Sasuke didn't like Naruto. He was annoying, full of himself and always in his way. Sasuke didn't like Miso she was weak and a push over. So you can imagine his surprise when Miso suddenly pushed him into a storage closet and closed the door. He stood by himself in a closet in muted shock. He was about to demand she let him out when he heard her speaking to the girls who was chasing him earlier.

"He went that way, Souma-san".

Sasuke stilled himself and listened to his fan girls run away. When he could no longer hear their voices or their footsteps, Miso opened the door. Sasuke just glared at her red rimmed eyes and shoved past her and walked in the opposite direction that he heard the girls go.

"You know, Uchiha-san. You are an asshole. You should really tell the girls to leave you alone instead of running away. You secretly enjoy the attention don't you? You treat people like trash and except them to respect you, you're such an insolent little child. What gives you the right to be such an ass?"

Sasuke turned around in anger only to stop when he saw Miso with no smile on her face. Her eyes where cold and he felt his insides chill. She walked closer to him and held something up to him. Sasuke tensed till he realized it was just a band aid. Confused Sasuke didn't take it. Miso still with the cold look on her face, took the band aid out of the package and slapped it hard on his arm, causing Sasuke to flinch a bit. She then walked past him exiting the school.

Sasuke followed her movement with a scowl on his face, trying to figure out this new side of Miso Uzumaki.

"What the crap Sasuke? Since when where you into bunnies, your so lame!" Naruto cackled from the window he had just jumped through. Sasuke looked down at his arm for the first time realizing he had a medium sized scratch that now had a pink band aid with bunnies on it covering his scratch. Where he got the scratch he wasn't sure.

"Dobe," Sasuke said as he stalked off, his hand reaching to pull of the band aide, then decided against as he didn't want to face the pain of taking it off. Sasuke hated the Uzumaki siblings.

Later that day Kiba was out wandering around with Akamaru on top of the Hokage's heads when his dog took off. Kiba shouted for his dog in surprise and chased till he happened to come across Miso, who was sitting by herself one the first Hokage's head. Akamaru was in her lap licking her face. She gave soft giggles and looked up at Kiba with a forced smile.

Nothing was said between the two yet Kiba found himself sitting down next to her in silence. They just sat there both watching the view of the village and both petting Akamaru. That silence was broken by Miso.

"You know, I'm afraid I wasn't entirely truthful about my bag".

Kiba gave her a look of confusion.

"Last year you asked why I carried around my bag. When Nii-san and I first started the academy, way back before you guys came, I didn't have it. I didn't have a need for it. But then the pranks started happening and the bullying and soon our lockers weren't safe to hold stuff. So one day I just decided that enough was enough and a just put everything that we needed and more into this bag. It didn't stop the defamation of Nee-chan and mine's property but it helped. Instead of every day, it was reduced to at most once a month. Today I guess it was just more shocking considering it hasn't happened in a while. I thought they were beginning to accept us," a soft pained smile graced her face as she looked at Kiba. Kiba didn't know what to say and remained silent. "Thank you for earlier and I guess now too," Miso said as she leaned back a bit.

Kiba didn't even have to ask why she said thank you. He knew, for sticking up for her and giving her some company.

"You're actually really smart right?" Kiba said awkwardly. Miso just looked at him with her eyebrows scrunched up. "The homework they tore wasn't really homework. They were notes and from what I saw pretty detailed. You also give me notes don't you? I've always wondered who was slipping me those notes, I recognize the hand writing".

Miso was silent and then said something that would change Kiba's perspective of the quite girl forever, "Average is good". She then stood up and brushed of the dirt that was on her clothing. She waved good bye and started walking back leaving Kiba in his thoughts. One thing was for sure, no one ever messed with Miso's bag again and her homework notes that Kiba got a copy of already seemed to increase in detail and length. His grades improved drastically. He never did find out why she gave him her class notes, he didn't really go out of his way to ask her. Just left her be like he did before.

"What's up with you and walking in the dark by yourself," Shikamaru said in annoyed voice as he caught up with Miso.

"Gomennasai, Nara-san," her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"What a drag".

"Why do you walk me home at night sometimes?"

"Girls shouldn't walk alone at night".

The two walked towards her home in silence. Shikamaru only leaving when he made sure she got into her apartment. Muttering about troublesome women all the way home. Miso on the other hand was emotionally exhausted. The school bag fiasco, telling off Uchiha, the Kiba thing, and then Shikamaru. Too many people, to out of schedule and too many emotions.

"Hey, I made some ramen for you," Naruto said to his sister. He ruffled her hair a bit and gave her a large grin. Not commenting on her red and tired eyes.

"Thanks, Nii-san… will you tell me about your day? It always makes me happy".

"So this morning as I walked past the bakery on the way to school I had this awesome idea. So I got a few bags of flower, some water, and some feathers and headed towards the old man's office. You should have seen their faces! All of those ninja and the old man were shocked when they were plastered in wet flower and feathers. Hahaha! It was priceless! Then of course they chased me around the village but I stopped a few of them by doing my sexy jutsu, perverts. Hey, Miso don't get to close to those guys, kay? Then I decided to get some ramen—"


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

"Keep up Little Blossom," Gai said as his teeth gleaming in the sunlight.

"Hai, Maito-san".

The figures clad in green jumpsuits, one with a white hoodie over there suit, lunged through the streets of Konoha. Catching everyone's attention. The adult was directing them his white teeth being a beacon of youth as he smiled at his pupils. His minnie me was yelling about youth and the little girl was just smiling and following them. Soon their lengthy lunges switched and became squats. Making some people want to bleach their minds of the image of Gai and Lee doing squats. They rotated between lunging and squatting till they reached their training ground again.

"Little Lotus Blossom," Gai's face was uncharacteristically serious, "I'm afraid that are training will have to come to end. Your graduation exam is within a few days' time and you will be assigned a genin team. Lee and I already have a team. Right now it is already difficult to find time to train together soon it will become even more of a trial. These past two years of working with you have truly been an honor oh, youthful one. I hope that we can meet again to train our youthful spirits but now it seems we have reached an impasse". Gai was looking off into the distance dramatically with tears streaking down his face, Lee was bawling and hugging Miso.

Miso just felt numb, "Y-your leaving me?"

"No!" both men shouted.

"I'm just warning you that we won't have much time together anymore, here I got you a present, my little blossom," Gai pulled out orange shinobi sandals, that went up to her knees, out of nowhere. "Remember a week back where we found one of your nature affinities by accident? This is to help with the problem you encountered, help with your speed, and be an official disciple of Maito Gai".

Miso reached for the orange sandals that matched the leg warmers that Lee and Gai were wearing. The where unbelievable heavy in her hand_, so they double as weights and a fashion accessory_, Miso thought. "Thank you Rock-san and Maito-san. I won't forget you and I promise to live in my youth," she said solemnly her eyes brimming with tears.

"Lotus Blossom!" Miso was engulfed by the two males as they hugged and cried rivers. After an hour of crying they went back to training only to cry again for forty minutes when it was time to depart. Miso tried being strong but when she got home she went straight to her brother wrapped her arms around him and bawled. Naruto just held his sister unsure why she was crying and puzzled by her change of shoes.

She cried because they left, she cried because things where changing again. The few hours she was with them, she was just herself and for those few precious moments Miso was okay with being above average, she was okay with her life, she even sometimes forgot about Naruto. She was just in the moment joining in on their ridicules challenges, training till she was exhausted psychically but rejuvenated mentally. They never passed pleasantries and really only stuck to training. So even though they only knew the surface stuff about her, those two gave Miso something that she would forever be grateful for. They gave her skill, strength, happiness, acceptance, and most of all they gave her orange shinobi sandals. At least she could feel like she was one of them with her matching sandals to their leg warmers.

Why sandals and not the usual leg warmers? Because during one of their sessions a week ago they had accidentally discovered her affinity, Earth. Miso had taken of her shoes to do some stretches and because she liked the feel of earth on her feet. When Gai gave an impromptu kick for her to block she quickly moved out of her way, and the sudden movement caused her to release large amounts of chakra by accident then earth moved and created a shield. Gai then ended the session and said that he had something's to do. Miso wouldn't find out till later that the sandals not only where for gaining speed but they were to help with her earth affinity. Gai had briefly explained to her that Miso could naturally mold chakra with the earth and her bare feet left no resistance for her chakra to combine with earth. Not like it bended at her will, it was more like the earth just allowed her to move easier. The shoes proved a shield of sorts, so when she was in battle releasing large amounts of chakra she wouldn't be moving earth with her feet. They weighed her down and created a block.

For the next few days Miso was miserable. She missed her goofballs and she didn't want change. She was in a half daze most of the time lost in her thoughts. She was running into doors and walls left and right. During lunch one day she accidently ate her napkin. She didn't bother cooking and barely kept up with her training. Naruto was going the extra mile with his pranks to cheer her up. Shino had his attempts too.

"Miso, I wondered why the kunai was getting bigger, then it hit me….. A man just assaulted me and took my milk, cream and butter, how dairy he… I don't trust stairs their always up to something…" and on Shino went for days saying on unpunny joke after another (pun intended). Miso's sad lost smile would brighten somewhat at the funnier ones but nothing seemed to cheer her up.

That was until a paper flower laid on her desk. It wasn't as complex and well folded as the one's she made but she knew who it was who it was from and for some reason the small gift made her feel better. That night when Miso was cleaning of the Hokage's faces with her brother, Iruka and Naruto where relived that she was back to normal. Iruka was so relieved he didn't mind buying the siblings second bowls of ramen that night.

Hinata was first drawn to Naruto. He had saved her from those bullies, after that she couldn't help but notice the boy. He was always alone except for his sister. He was always doing his best. He was the opposite of Hinata. Soon her feelings of admiration took a more serious nature and Hinata found that she had feelings for the boy. She knew she would never be able to confront the boy so she settled for watching him from afar. She gave him her lunch when his and his sister's were stolen. She would go to class early and make sure there was no graffiti or mean notes at their desks. She gave him silent encouragement.

Now, Hinata wasn't deluding herself. She knew that her actions while appreciated, would mostly go unnoticed by the boy. Also that he would never realize her feelings. Hinata hated herself. She wasn't pretty like the other girls, she wasn't smart like the other kids, she was the heir of her clan and she was useless. Yet Naruto made her feel important and made her want to try harder. So with a silent resolve Hinata knew that she would attempt to confess to him one day. Of course not now, she wasn't ready she couldn't even say hi to him.

What did help where the delicately folded paper flowers that ended up on her desk. Miso who had realized Hinata's efforts had started folding origami flowers for the girl with words of encouragement on them. Whenever Hinata seemed particular down trodden a flower appeared on her desk. Hinata treasured theses and kept them in a box in her room where she would look over them every once in a while and smile at the words that Miso wrote to her on the flowers. _'Your hair and eyes are actually really pretty, don't let the other kids tease you', 'you did amazing in taijutsu class today', 'I'm rooting for you and my Nii-san', 'making fun of a tree is a knock on wood'._ Hinata loved the silly puns that Miso wrote her, those where her favorite. She never knew the girl could be so funny.

So the last week of school before the graduation exam, Hinata to the best of her ability folded a small flower and set it on Miso's desk. She didn't write anything because she didn't know what to say but she hoped the flower would work. She almost laughed for joy when Miso's mood turned around and she almost fainted with happiness when Miso folded another flower and placed it on her desk with the simple words of '_thank you'._

"Hey, Nii-san. Can you teach me that sexy jutsu too?"

"Sure, but don't use it unless you have too. You don't know what type of creeps are around here got it? This is so cool it's like we have a twin move now!"

The Hokage's tea cup broke in half while sitting on his desk, _something horrible just happened_, he thought. How right he was… how right he was…

_**Authors note:**_

_So…. I need some opinions. Team assignments are coming up, my first instinct is to place her on team Kakashi because all of Naruto's plot obviously revolves around them. It would be easier to write… However, if I place her on team Kakashi I won't be getting rid of Sakura. Because in the end Sakura is an important character to both Sasuke and Naruto... So it would be a four man team, however I plan on having Usagi out more often so it would be more like a five man team. Which is just too many people. Fours already stretching it. Plus, Miso already has Sue-ish aspects to her, placing her onto the main team only adds to that. _

_Her, on team 7 allows for Miso to stay with her Brother and slowly learn he doesn't need her. (Which creates interesting tension and dynamic) Have a rivalry with Sakura and have them fight all the time. A few heart to heart moments with Sasuke but she's also constantly trolling him. And the survival test would be cool to cover because Miso only works with Naruto and sabotages her other team mates. Sakura only works with Sasuke, Sasuke works with no one, and Naruto is willing to work with his sister and Sakura. So major team work issues that would eventually cause Miso to mature more. Also she would be constantly comparing how unyouthful Kakashi is compared to Gai and how he should be more like him (she tells him multiple times how Gai is better than him). Yet she still has a close relationship with Kakashi…Eventually. Plus Kakashi's internal conflict on how she acts like Minato, Obito and Kushina. _

_Yet if I place her on another team they would be older than her being in Lee's year. They would work closer with team Gai. The oc sensei is really epic and a bit sadistic. Her teammates are hilarious; one of them is like 30% Urahara, 40% Tamki Souh, and 10% Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin and 20% Gin. The other team mate would be a love interest for Shino. Their team would specialize in assassinations, interrogation, and torture. Oddly enough Miso will be able to work with them because she understands that in order to help her brother she has to move up in the ranks. She would have to learn to get over her issues and their team would be boss at the chunin exams as they troll everyone. Her guy teammate specializes in transformation jutsu's, and her girl teammate is a glutton. So when they line up for the preliminaries at the exams: Miiso is beat up and is only wearing her Spandex suit and sandals, with Usagi on top of her head. The guy teammate is transformed into a cloud that's wearing glasses, flouting behind her. Then her other female teammate is the last in line and she's having a picnic. Their Sensei isn't even paying attention as she's fixing her appearance with a hand held mirror... and everyone in the room is either staring at them or team 7. Their team would meet up and do a few important missions with team 7 but this team explores the darker aspects of being a ninja. As they will kill earlier then everyone else and her team has a different morale code and understands that there really is no good or bad in the world. The female OC teammate at one point meets up with a few Akatsuki and chats with them but their views. _

_Placing her on the other team at least lessons the cliché and allows for more characters to cover other aspects not covered in the Manga. She would also still be there for some pivotal points with the toad sage no matter what team she's on. (Just wait when she starts copying things he does along with things Gai does).Plus theirs one plot idea where her whole team goes rogue, Sensei and all. _

_So I would like to hear what you guys think and let me know which route you feel I should take. I should caution you this is more of a way to get a feel for what the readers want but I will ultimately make the decision this isn't a voting thing or a poll_


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

When Miso woke up today at her usual time she just laid in bed. Today was the graduation exam and she knew Naruto wouldn't pass. She had already decided herself to fail the clone jutsu again so that way she would be held back too but she couldn't get the feeling of dread out of her gut. By the time it was time to get up in fix breakfast Naruto was already up too. Both were unusually subdued that morning. They ate in silence, they walked in silence, and they entered the class room slowly.

Miso didn't wave to Shino this morning and Shino didn't bother to go find her. Already knowing what was on her mind. She was grateful.

Iruka came in passed out the written exams. Naruto groaned and Miso began calculating how many she would have to answer to get average. Miso knew her brother would do fine on the exam the only thing holding him back was the stupid clone jutsu. The minutes seemed to tick by and the classroom was filled with pencil scratching and paper rustling. Soon after a long grueling hour and a half the exam was finished. Now everyone was moving onto the practical test. Iruka would call everyone out by alphabetical order and they wouldn't return once they were called. Whether they passed or not they were ushered out of the building. It was a mind game that teachers inflicted on the students, not letting people know who passed and who didn't.

By the time the class had dwindle down to half of its original number the students had shifted into normal conversations again but all conversation stopped with Naruto called to Miso across the room. She was busy cleaning up the classroom since Iruka was gone.

"Miso. When they call your name don't fake out like you usually do. You're going to pass this time, understood? If you purposely fail like you usually do, I won't forgive you".

The class stopped acting like they were in fake conversation and openly stared at Miso. She was faking? Some looked at her with disbelief others just scoffed. But a few calculative stares watched her, one of them being Sasuke. As he clearly remembered those cold eyes that spat hateful words at him.

When Iruka finally called Miso she trudged out of the room like she was going to her death.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Iruka said as he patted her head mistaking her sad demeanor for worry over the possibility of failing. It was ironic as the sad demeanor was from her knowing she was going to pass.

Miso just walked in the room and did the required jutsus. Iruka was proud of the girl thinking she had worked hard to be able to master them finally not realizing she was giving up on her hoax. By the end of the test he gave her the standard blue fore head protector. He was surprised she picked blue instead of black considering she was wearing, pure pristine white, dark forest green, and bright almost neon orange. Black would have worked better but blue she picked. The girl really had no sense of fashion as the blue just clashed with her outfit. The green and white went together. The green and Orange went together. The orange, white and blue matched… somewhat. But all together they just clashed.

Miso waited outside by their usually spot. When Naruto came out with no leaf head band, Miso felt like she was punched in the gut. She hesitantly walked over to him one hand reaching towards him the other fingering her hairpin. Her legs were a little shaky as she walked.

"Nii-san—"

"Miso, could you leave me alone for a little while?" he said quietly cutting her off. She only nodded with a pained smile. The air had left her at his words. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't think, so she just turned around not even glancing back and ran home. She collapsed on her bed leaving the lights off and just stared at the empty wall.

She was a genin, her brother wasn't. She was already failing him in helping him achieve his dream. Now he wanted nothing to do with her. First Lee and Gai left her and now her brother was leaving her. She couldn't even go to Shino knowing he was celebrating with his family. Plus now that Shino was a genin he would leave her too. She felt cold and alone. She had forgotten what loneliness felt like, she had let herself become soft. She had taken down her walls and now what did she have? Suffocating pain.

She felt like she couldn't breathe, anger and sadness where fighting inside of her. She hated this.. hate hate hate hate hate hate hate…. hated that she was a ninja. She didn't want to be a shinobi. She didn't want to go the academy, make friends, up hold the will of fire, and now she was doing exactly what she hated. She wanted to be alone. She wanted it to be just be her and Nii-san. Yet the world was cruel. She had no parents, Ji-chan wasn't in their lives anymore, people where cruel things, and the fear that her brother disliked her clouded her mind.

Miso small hands where clutching the hairpin that she had taken out of her hair tight. Her knuckles turning white as she cradled the pin to her. She opened her hands slightly to see the bunny pin that her brother had gotten her, her first hair pin. Instead of tears welling in her eyes, Miso felt anger. She had never felt anger before and know she was full of it. She let out a scream that was muffled by the pillow she had shoved her face in. She was so sick of crying so she just screamed into her pillow till her voice grew hoarse, dry, cracked, soar, and red. When she could no longer scream because her throat was raw she hit her pillow over and over and over and over again. Her arms becoming tired as she pounded into her mattress and pillow for hours.

Then when she realized it was dark out and her brother had yet to come home, she felt drained, she felt tired. She just laid their limply in her bed positioning her body so she could watch his bed and watch for her brother to come home. Still clutching the hairpin tightly, she waited. Her head band lay in a heap on the floor from when she chucked it across the room as soon as she got home. Her waiting turned to concern. So Miso closed her eyes and focused her senses to try and sense her brother. It took a while as he was in the far edges of the village…. with two other signatures… She felt despair well in her, her brother went to other people not her for help. She started breathing in and out quickly and rocking back and forth. Her breathing was short and quick, each breathe felt like it was stabbing her lungs, her chest felt tight. Her hands where now held so close to her chest that it was uncomfortable and a rigid position. She just slowly curled into a ball still on her side. Her forehad touching her knees as she rocked herself. "_He doesn't need me, he doesn't need me, he doesn't need me, he hates me, he hates hates hates hates me", _thoughts whirled in her head and with each though her breathing became more panicked.

"Girl, stop you're going to get a panic attack," a familiar deep voice said. His tiny paws resting on her shoulder. She still was in her panicked state, Usagi tried a few more times with gently shaking her and he even slapped her. Nothing worked. She was too far gone. Finally the rabbit just hugged her awkwardly. As she was still on her side and he was smaller than her. His soft fury paws patted her side and he muttered a few comforting words. Then finally a deep breath shuddered through her body.

"U-U-Usa-chan?" she said breathily.

"Who else? Now you need to calm down and breathe. Just a few breathes with me. In. Out. In. Out. Slower. Deep breaths, good Girl. In. Out. In. Out. Look at me Girly you're okay, nothing's going to happen. Your brother isn't leaving you. You're not alone.. Breathe… Good Girl, Your Usa-chan is here for you. No don't go looking back at his bed, look at me. Just me. Just look at me and breathe… Now, keep calm. Let's go get your brother he might be in need of some help. Come on Little Girl".

Miso nodded and got out of bed and started running with Usa-chan on her head towards her brother's chakra signature. "How did you get here? I didn't summon you?"

"When we remade the summoning scroll we messed up slightly. Allowing a two way connection to form between us and you. So you can still summon us but we can also appear without your direct summoning. We automatically take your chakra to appear. Don't worry though my sister watches over who comes and who doesn't come. She has the ability to see between the worlds so she watches over our summoner and she also directs who can go and who can't go. I honestly wanted to wait till you were in battle and in danger so it would be really dramatic when a rabbit summon came without your call and saves you. How cool would that have been? But right now your emotional and mental distress was enough to cause Hikaru to send for me. We need to work on your issues kid".

"…..Why is Nii-san in trouble?"

"I don't know all the details. Hikaru just said get the girl and go to the brother".

Miso nodded and continued to follow her brother's chakra. It was a little difficult because he seemed to be all over the place. Moving through the trees at a fast pace, then all of sudden their seemed to hundreds of him in an area. By the time Miso finally found her brother Iruka was handing Naruto his head band and Mizuki Sensei was passed out on the ground.

"What happened?"

Naruto turned towards his sister with a large grin, "I'm genin now! That's what happened!" His happiness calmed her worries. Yet she still was worried that he was resentful towards her.

Miso blinked at her brother, "Well then I'll make some ramen and we can celebrate. Umino-Sensei you're invited also".

"First let's get back to the village to take care of Mizuki and my injuries," Iruka grinned at the two siblings. Naruto summoned more shadow clones to carry Iruka and the unconscious man. Miso and Usagi both raised their eyebrows in surprise.

"Well, seems your brother somehow got the Scroll of Seals and learned a secret technique. My best guess is that the unconscious man tricked him and his ability to make these clones let him pass".

"That does make sense, I always thought Mizuki-Sensei felt a bit off. His chakra was always angry and felt wrong". Usagi just patted her head and the two followed behind Naruto and Iruka.

The return to the village went without a hitch and soon the group found themselves in front of the Hokage. Hiruzen ordered one of the anbu to return the scroll and had a few others take Mizuki. He then patted Naruto and Miso on the head, "Congrats on passing".

"Ji-chan I'm making homemade ramen wanna come eat with us?"

Sarutobi nodded and the four started toward the sibling's apartment (five if you counted Usa-chan). However, Miso fell back and walked over to two ninja who were holding Mizuki who was now awake. The two ninja looked hesitantly at the little blonde girl who was walking over too them. Miso thought it was odd that one of the ninjas had a long needle in his mouth and the other ninja had bandages across his nose. But Usagi once told her the more experienced ninjas got the more eccentric they become. So she left their odd appearance be.

"Mizuki-Sensei," Miso began pleasantly the man just glowered at her and attempted to spit at her but Miso dodged quickly by stepping to the side at an unbelievable fast pace suspiring the three ninja. Her smile was gone on her face and the same look she had when she killed that man so many years ago reappeared. "If you ever attempt to hurt my brother again not only will I castrate you in font of hundreds. But I will cut off your fingers and toes one by one. Not the whole part, little bits and pieces. I'll cut them off slowly till they become fountains of blood and nubs. Then I will slice off your mouth and pull out your tongue. I will grind your nose down till it is nothing but broken bone. I will proceeded to carve at your eyes with a dull kunai and I will listen to your screams with pleasure and have you beg for me to kill you. Yet I will let you live blind, speechless, deformed, and cripple the rest of your life as your forced to depend upon others. Women and children will cower away from you because of your appearance, men will pity you maybe a few will even see you as a monster. I will make sure to leave your ears so you can hear it. Hear your screams and hear the people whisper behind your back. Her your own cries of despair as you sink into nothingness. You better be careful because this isn't a threat it's a promise. You cross my brother again and I. will. Terminate. you".

She then turned around and ran back to the Hokage who was waiting for her. Her brother and Iruka having gone ahead.

"Well, aren't you full of issues," Usagi mused. Pleased that Miso wasn't spineless.

"What where you doing?"

"I was telling Mizuki-Sensei off for doing such a bad thing," Miso said with an innocent smile to her Ji-chan; grabbing his hand and walking with him back to her and her brother's apartment. Aware that Sarutobi was watching her through the corner of his eye.

"So, when did you get the rabbit summoning scroll? You know that scroll is rare, I have to admit I'm surprised that you have it. Being so young…" Sarutobi wasn't in his Ji-chan mode he was in his Hokage mode. Knowing there where things about the girl that she was hiding.

"Usa-chan found me," Miso chirped happily knowing that the Hokage was interrogating her. To misdirect him she began talking about bunnies and the different animals she liked, acting like a naive child.

The subject was dropped and they spent the early hours of the morning eat her homemade ramen and listening to Naruto regal his adventure. Miso giggling with Usagi's deep laughter at her brothers antics.

As soon as the meal was over the Hokage called the two ninjas he had contain Mizuki to his office, "Report".

"Mizuki is currently in apprehend and being interviewed by Ibiki Morino".

"Good, now I must ask. You two wouldn't happen to know what Miso Uzumaki said to the man, would you?"

The two men looked at each other each showing hesitance before Genma answered out of the two, "Hokage, she threatened the man. Rather violently for someone with her disposition".

"Explain everything".

The two ninjas looked at each other and nodded, "I am not familiar with the girl but her behavior was hostile—"


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

"Take it again".

"Whaaaat! No! Sexy Jutsu!"

"Naruto! I told you not to do that jutsu again! Besides this picture looks nothing like you it's supposed to identify you!"

"Well how am I supposed to know this complicated stuff?"

"I think it looks nice Nii-san," Miso said from her seat near the Hokage as she sipped tea. "It's really clever, everyone in the village will know it's you but enemy ninja won't".

"Exactly!" Naruto grinned.

Sarutobi closed his eyes in exasperation. The siblings where getting worse every day Naruto more unruly and Miso more… eccentric. Hiruzen had not failed to notice her orange sandals and the fact she hadn't take off the spandex suit. Plus the disturbing information he got from Genma. He took a sip of the tea that Miso had brought him and sighed speaking of troublesome children…

"Old man, I challenge you! I'm going to defeat you and become the fifth Hokage!" a little boy came charging in then fell flat on his face. Miso felt bad for him having fallen many times before and began digging through her bag for a band aid and a cold compress.

"I don't care if he's your grandmother!" Naruto yelled and hit the boy. Miso grabbed a second band aid and handed it to Konohamaru along with the cold press. She waved good bye to her brother and the Hokage as she head out. She had other things today. Namely visit Shino.

After a long chat with Usagi, that lasted many hours. She was finally convinced to visit Shino and innate a deeper friendship. Usagi had told her that it would help with her anxiety and brother issues if she had more people to concern herself with. Miso didn't really buy into that argument. What really got her to go was when the rabbit told her the more people she had on her side the more people she could use to help her brother become Hokage.

Miso had visited Shino before, but today was the first visit that didn't have to do with school. She brought him his homework and notes when he missed but that was it. She was a jumble of nerves as he walked towards the Aburame compound. When she finally arrived she quickly dug through her bag and got the box of cookies she had made the night before. She gingerly waked past the gate towards the compound. Miso shivered as she head bugs all around her. She was purposely not looking anywhere but her feet as she walked so she wouldn't see any insects. Finally she came to a stop in front of a two dark shinobi shoes, she took a step back and looked up to meet the sunglasses of a Aburame that she was unfamiliar with.

"C-c-could you get Shino-chan… please?" The silent figured nodded and went inside the compound leaving Miso to outside by herself for only a few moments.

"Miso?" Shino's voice caused Miso to look up and grin in relief.

"Here, I brought you cookies to celebrate becoming genin".

"So you passed? I was sure you were going to fail on purpose. Where is your fore head protector?" Shino signaled for Miso to sit down and the both sat on the patio of the compound as he opened the box containing his favorite cookies. He handed one to Miso.

"Ya, both Nii-san and I passed. I just wanna stay a civilian a little while longer," she shrugged in reply, "Do you think we will be on the same team? I know some teams are already set like the Ino-Shika-Cho and they do the teams based on strength… think there's a chance?"

"Most unlikely with my skill set I will most likely be set with a tracking team. Your chakra abilities are impressive but you are highly unlikely to be put on a team with me. I do think you will end up on your brother's team though".

"You think? I know that's what I really want but I don't want to get my hopes up…"

"It will almost be illogical to put you on separate teams. Your personalities balance each other out and your skills work well together. Besides neither of you would work well with other people aside from each other".

Miso and Shino chatted till the box was empty. Then Miso bid Shino goodbye and set out to find her brother. She had seen her brother do a lot of crazy things but seeing the man with the glasses from earlier passed out from blood lose because of her brothers multiple clones and sexy jutsu was not something she was fully prepared to see. Miso blushed and walked into the clearing, "Nii-san, Konohamaru".

Naruto dispelled his jutsu and Konohamru blushed at seeing her. "Oh, hey Miso. What are you doing here?"

"I came to find you because we were going to go shopping for ninja supplies today and prepare for tomorrow.." she trailed off.

"Oh, okay just give me a sec…"

She watched with a pleased smile at the speech Naruto was giving the little boy about being Hokage.

"Listen we're rivals now!" Konohamru said before he ran off.

"Cute kid," Miso grinned at Naruto; her brother just shrugged.

The following morning Naruto was on cloud nine. Miso was officially in Hell. Today was the day they found out their new genin teams and jounin sensei. Naruto left ahead of her knowing Miso was going to be slower today than usual. It was a silent agreement when they made eye contact this morning. Miso sat at their kitchen table staring at the head band laying there. She was dressed in her usual clothing and she had her lucky bunny hairpin laying right by the head band. Sighing realizing she was going to have to leave soon she tied the forehead protector around her forehead. Then pinned her bangs to the side like usual. The leaf insignia was barely noticeable as her hair covered most of the head band. Her side bangs obscuring it, her hairpin distracting attention away from it.

She quickly cleaned up Naruto's breakfast pausing when she saw her brother hadn't thrown out the milk. She hoped that he didn't drink any of it. She quickly threw it away in her already full trash can. Naruto hadn't taken the trash out either. Miso was nervous about asking him to do his chores as she was still worried about rejection. She decided she would do his chores later to avoid the possible conflict.

She then began her slow trek to school in her large white hoodie cover her full green spandex suite and finally her weighted orange shinobi sandals. She waved to a few passer byers and stopped to chat to Konohamaru. It was odd that the boy was blushing the whole time, when she moved her hand to feel his forehead to check for a fever. The boy's whole face turned red. Miso left some medicine for him and a bottle water worried that he was getting sick. Finally when she entered the room where her doom was her mouth dropped. Nartuo and Sasuke where kissing!

"Nii-san!"

Naruto and Sasuke where both attempting to clean their mouths. Miso had to step in and diffuse the impending beating that Naruto was going to get. She then sat down by Shikamaru as that was the only spot left. A shocked look on her face.

"Hey, Imouto you okay?"

"Nii-san… I didn't know… I didn't know… that you felt that way about guys… I'm such a horrible sister I should have realized that you… played for the other team. I've been so busy screening females for any future relationship you could have and I totally forgot about the guy population. Now look… you picked the worst guy! I should have seen your odd obsession for beating him as a sign and your attachment to Umino- Sensei. Why couldn't you pick someone like Shino or Choji?"

The whole class was looking at Miso oddly, Sasuke had an angry tick mark on his forehead.

"No! Gross! I like girls Miso! GIRLS! It was an accident!"

"Uchiha-san… he forced you?" Miso now had a look of horror on her face, "How dare he violate you Nii-san."

"I didn't violate anyone he kissed me and it never happened. You got it!" That started another argument between the two boys.

"Hey you okay?" Shikamaru asked Miso. It was a pain to ask her but he did it anyways. Girls where always so troublesome.

"Ya, it was fun messing with them a little bit…. Don't you think?" she giggled a bit, Shikamaru actually cracked a smile. Not a smirk or an eye role but a smile. She figured that was the about as close as one can get to making a Nara laugh.

"So who are you hoping to be on teams with?"

"Nii-san."

"Should have seen that when coming I guess…"

"Of course, you wouldn't be so bad either. I already know I won't end up on Shino-chan's team". She grinned at Shikamaru he smirked back.

"The other day in class….This whole time you've been faking on not being able to do clones. What else have you been faking about?"

Miso just gave him a grin in reply and didn't say anything further on the matter. He just shrugged and started arguing with Ino. He was curious but he didn't really want to work for the answers so he let the subject drop.

"Okay, I'll be splitting you into groups of three and one group of four. Team 1—" Miso quickly tuned Iruka out as she was more interested in the little conversations happening around her.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Iruka's voice called out breaking Miso from her thoughts, "Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha…." Miso let her head it the table and groaned. Today sucked. It defiantly sucked, "and Miso Uzumaki". She gave a large grin of happiness, reaching over and high-fiving her brother.

"The Uzumaki siblings are going to be the best team ever! Believe it!"

"Naruto sit back down!" Iruka yelled.

Miso's sucky day in Hell was turned around in an instant. She tuned everybody else out and was now humming the chakra rhythms her feet swinging from her chair. She was on a team with her brother, all was good. Of course she was still nervous about his rejection but that could be solved later.

"Wow, you really wanted to be on his team," Shikamaru observed.

"Of course, good luck with your team Nara-san," she replied as she got up with everyone else when lunch started. Naruto was in front of her in an instant.

"Hey….Listen Miso I was wondering if you could do me a favor and let me eat lunch with Sakura… alone…. Please!" Naruto clasped his hands together in a praying motion. Miso froze in place and then slowly handed her brother his lunch and watched him run off after the pink haired genin.

"That was cold," Shikamaru said as he watched Miso's demeanor darken slightly. Seeing her with a sad smile and looking so put out Shikamaru did the one thing he wasn't expecting, "What a drag. Come on, you can come each lunch with my team".

She followed him soundless as he gathered up Ino and Choji. Ino keeping silent about the new addition at having seen what happened only a moment ago. Choji not really caring but hoping that she had those delicious dumplings she made. Ino eventually ended up taking lead and bringing them up to the roof.

"Listen up the only way this team is going to work is if you let me lead. Got it?"

"Ya, whatever," Shikamaru snapped back.

"Why don't you lead us to some barbeque Ino," Choji taunted as he ate Miso's dumplings having traded lunches with her.

"Shut up!" Ino shot back, she then gave Miso a considering look, "Hey you okay?" Miso just shrugged in response and silently ate Choji's bento. "Listen I don't know what the big deal is that your brother ditched you but you shouldn't let it bug you so much. You're more than Naruto's sister, so start acting like it".

"Ino," warned Shikamaru knowing it was a touchy subject. They both glared off when something got Ino's eye.

"Hey, what's Naruto doing?"

"You don't think?"

"How dare he attack my Sasuke!" Ino grumbled.

"Nii-san?" Miso questioned to herself as she listened to the noise of fighting as the window had closed in the building obscuring her view.

"Wow! He didn't even break a sweet".

"That's my boy Sasuke!"

"Wait Miso!" Choji said in alarm as Miso stood up and used the railing as a boost to flip off their roof and unto another one, all three sweet dropped when they heard her call out "Youth". After landing her flip she then quickly jumped across the landing into a rolling somersault then a practiced crouch. She then went inside the window.

"Well that was impressive," Ino muttered. Her teammates nodding in agreement. The girl had been totally silent in her movements and had a flawless execution.

"Nii-s—you're not Nii-san," Miso stated as she looked at the tied up boy on the floor. He just glared at her. "Well looks like you've got things handled," as she sing songed with an innocent grin as left the room through the window again. Leaving the boy tied up, she could feel the glare burning into her back. She was pretty sure it was tattooed into her skin. She climbed her way back to her companions with much less flare then she did when she left them.

"So how was Naruto?" Choji inquired as she sat back down and continued eating lunch.

"Hmm? Oh, it was Sasuke. Naruto ambushed him, tied him up, and transformed into him for some reason."

"What?" Choji asked incredulous.

"Did you untie him?" Ino all but shouted.

"Nope". Miso said as she stood back up to go back to the classroom as lunch was over, "looked like he had things handled".

Both Choji and Shikamaru laughed… Well Shikamaru smirked more then laughed but Choji actually laughed. Ino abruptly headed towards where Sasuke was tied up to rescue him. Only by the time she got their he was gone.

The rest of the day went by rather smoothly. A few teachers gave final speeches to the class about how far the class has come. One chunin came in and gave a forty minute lecture on new responsibilities and being a good shinobi. When it was about two in the afternoon Senseis started showing up. Miso waved goodbye to Shino and his group who were the first to leave. She did the same for Shikamaru's group as they were the second to last group to leave. The last being them.

"Augh! Where is he?! All the other jounin instructors came and even Iruka- Sensei left!" Naruto whined.

"We know that Naruto," Sakura said annoyed.

Miso just contently read one on of the fuinnjutsu scrolls she brought with her. Not really bothered by the fact their Sensei was three hours late. Naruto had only recently began complaining as he finally got bored of the comic books she had in her back pack. Miso had to admit she got sick pleasure when after a half hour of their Sensei not showing up, she was able to pull things out to entertain herself and her brother. Her back pack had tons of items to pass the time by. When Sakura asked if she could borrow something Miso 'kindly' replied, "I really only have my own study stuff that I don't feel comfortable sharing… and a few of Nii-sans comics..."

When in reality she had a card game, spare paper, a coloring book and few other items that could have relieved the pinkette's boredom. Naruto didn't chastise her about her behavior because he had no idea what was in her bag. Besides she had the right to dislike someone. Sakura was a immature jerk and Sasuke was plainly an ass. Most of the time Miso hid her dislike but with these two she had no such qualms. After all they were rude to her brother. Sakura knew Naruto liked her yet was cruel to him, plus she had her head in the clouds. Sasuke was just plain mean.

Sakura attempted to read Naruto's comics but was quickly gave up. Sasuke didn't even bother to ask and continued to sit in the same brooding pose for three hours. Three long hours where he just brooded. Miso had to give him some credit for being so dedicated to being an imbecilic ass.

Miso looked up when she felt a familiar chakra presence. She had felt this signature a few times before but was never able to place a name to the man. She giggled when the white haired shinobi opened the door and fell into Naruto's prank. Yet her amusement was quickly replaced as she realized that Gai wasn't going to be her Sensei. She knew it was unlikely as he already had a team but she still hoped that he would be her teacher. That he would come running in with Lee, his sunset genjutsu working as he would whisk her and her brother away. Instead she got this disappointment of a ninja who wasn't as cool or as youthful as Gai.

"My first impression of you all… is that I hate you…" the white haired man said. _At least where on the same page_, Miso thought idly as she followed her team to the roof. Why they had to change locations was a mystery to her. No one else was in the classroom and it wasn't like any information that was being shared was top secret. Still she followed them.

"So why don't we introduce ourselves…"

"Sensei what do you mean?" Sakura asked, Miso raised her eyebrows _what do you think he means. Introduce yourself, talk about ourselves how clear can that be. _

"Likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams for the future… Things like that."

"Why don't you go first and show us".

"I am Kakashi Hatake… Things I like, things I hate… I didn't really feel like telling you about them. Dreams for the future? Never really thought about. As for my hobbies, I have lots of hobbies. You on the right go first".

"Belive it I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen in a cup and I really like the ramen Iruka sensei got me … Oh, and I like my sister… but I really hate the three minutes you have to wait after you put your water in the ramen cup. My hobbies are eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them. And my future dream is to become the greatest Hokage. That way the whole village will stop disrespecting me and Miso. And start treating us like we're somebody, somebody important".

"Alright next".

"I'm Miso Uzumak," her gentle grin on her face as she raised her hand in a half wave. She didn't feel like talking and she was too happy with her brother's words about liking her and being a part of his dream. He didn't hate her, all was good in Miso's world.

Everybody waited for her to say more but after fifteen seconds Kakashi finally broke the silence, "Do you want to say more?"

"Ya, where supposed to be introducing ourselves," Sakura butt in.

"Well the people who I want to know me, already know about me and the people who don't know me already don't really matter," She cocked her head to the side with an innocent smile on her face.

"…Well… than… Your turn…" Kakashi eye never left Miso. He had to admit that if felt painful to see her. At least with Naruto he could see him for who he was. He didn't see the ghosts of his past. Naruto looked like his father but he had darker blonde hair, whiskers on his face, and Kushina's personality that it offset Minato's features. Kushina's verbal tick and personality was defiantly there but he was far more easy going then she was and a little more reckless then her. There was just enough difference between Naruto and his parents that it wasn't painful to be around him. At least not as much as Kakashi thought it would be. Kakashi could separate Naruto from his parents. He could choose not see the two people who he cared for. Naruto of course did remind him of Obito as they had similar actions but Naruto wasn't as kind as Obito was, he wasn't late like Obitio, he wasn't Obito. Kakashi could see Naruto as Naruto

Miso… He couldn't stop seeing the people he cared for. Which was odd considering she was the least like them but the most like them. She look like Kushina almost an exact replica. Except for her father's coloring and the fact that she had bigger eyes, darker lashes, cuter features. She was like chibi Kushina. Yet, the way she smiled, the way she addressed people, the way she moved, it was all Minato. He couldn't separate the two, he couldn't stop seeing them in her, like she could with Naruto. She had just a little too much of her parents that it hurt, it physically hurt to look at her. He wanted to run, to get out of there, but he was stuck looking at his past.

Kakashi had done his research on his students. From his research her found a lot of information about how his students lived, what they liked, disliked, strengths, weakness, etc. The more he found out about Miso the harder it was to be her teacher. She was always helping people like Obitio did. She was always smiling like Minato. She was always kind like Rin. She was always getting in trouble like Kushina. It was painful to see such a mesh of the people who he cared for in her. He felt like he was seeing their deaths over and over and over again when he looked at her. He couldn't' separate the girl from his past. Even though logically his mind told him that Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke had greater links then she did. Yet his soul was just fixated on how much like them she was. Not how different she was.

"My name is Sakura Haruno…what I like—I mean the person I like is… My hobbies is… My dream for the future…" Sakura squealed causing Miso to lean her head away from the girl to ensure her ears didn't rupture.

"What do you hate?"

"Naruto!" she yelled as she glared at the blonde boy.

Miso was still reading her scroll promptly rolled it up and wacked Sakura with you, "That's not very nice, Haruno-san". Sakura glared at the girl, Miso just grinned innocently at her.

"Last one".

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream because I will make it an reality. I'm going to restore my clan and destroy a certain someone."

Silence filled the area. It wasn't like the peaceful awkward that Miso created when she didn't elaborate about herself. This was a heavy silence. Miso could guess what everyone was thinking based of their chakra fluxation. Nii-san was worried, Sakura was oddly happy and Kakashi didn't really care.

"Good your each unique and you have your own ideas," the white haired man said as he successfully broke the tension. "Will have our first mission tomorrow".

"What kind of mission are we going to have," Naruto grinned widely.

"It's a task that the five of us will do together…. A survival exercise."

Miso cut off Sakura before she could complain, "This isn't like the academy. Were genin now so a survival test will most likely put our lives on the line or test us in some way. Just because someone becomes a genin and gets away from the academy. Doesn't mean that we know everything. You'd have to be rather full yourself to think that we won't be training. Right Haruno-san?" her tone of voice and the fake kind smile on her face made it sound like she was just asking Sakura an innocent question, making an observation, getting the girl's opinion. Yet everyone but Naruto felt her underlying annoyance with the girl.

Kakahsi began to laugh creepily, "Out of the 28 graduates only ten will be made genin. The others will be weeded out and sent back to the academy. In other words this is a make it or break it test. The chance that you'll fail is at least 66%. Didn't I tell you that you wouldn't like it".

"What! What about the graduation test?" Naruto exclaimed

"That was to see who could be potential genins. I get to decide whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at 5 a.m. and bring your ninja gear. Thats it your dismissed. Oh, tomorrow you better skip breakfast or you'll puke." Kakashi disappeared after he finished speaking in a cloud of leaves.

"Well… he's a bit dramatic, right Nii-san?" Miso said idly.

"Ugh! I can't believe this!" Naruto wasn't even paying attention to his sister as he was now complaining loudly. He didn't even say goodbye to his companions. He just grabbed his sister's hand and dragged her home. Complaining loudly and attempting to hide his worry. Although he wasn't fooling Miso.

Miso heated up some left overs and listened patiently to her brother. He went from being irritable, to worried, to panicked, to confident, to irritable again as he talked. She just patted him on his back and placed food in front of him. Choosing not to say anything knowing it wouldn't have any effect on her Nii-san. Before they went to bed the quickly packed their ninja packs with the supplies they would need. Well Naruto packed a plan blue ninja bag. Miso stuck to her black bunny printed bag. Miso also went the extra mile and prepared food for tomorrow knowing that they would need to eat. Even if Kakashi advised against it.

As they crawled into bed, Miso turned to her brother who was setting the alarm. "Nii-san… don't worry. No matter what you will pass. I'll make sure of it," she got out bed and gave him a quick hug.

"We'll pass together," her brother said with renewed confidence. Miso just nodded and fell into a deep sleep knowing that worry would do nothing.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Miso and Naruto where the first to arrive at the training grounds. Miso who had been waking up at 5 a.m. since she was four was well prepared to wake up a half hour earlier. They had gotten everything ready the night before so all they had to do was put on clothes, brush their hair and teeth, grab some breakfast to eat on the way and they were out the door in ten minutes. Granted it took Naruto some coaxing to get out of bed. But once he was up things went smoothly.

As soon as they arrived Miso started her training that she usually did, she was strength training today. Naruto laid on the ground and used her backpack as a pillow. Five after, Sasuke arrived looking as collected as ever. He made eye contact with Miso who was in the midst of stretching but didn't do anything else but look away. He did step on Naruto on purpose though before he went to lean against the tree. Naruto groaned and rolled over falling back asleep. Miso would get Sasuke back later for doing that to her brother. Right now she was more concerned with keeping schedule. Sakura arrived last. It wasn't like she was majorly late, it was only eight after five.

The clearing was filled with silence as Sasuke brooded, Naruto slept, Miso trained, and Sakura fidgeting as she attempted to talk to Sasuke. It wasn't till Miso was done with her training at 6:30 did the silence break.

Miso walked back over and gently shook her brother awake so she get into her bag. She needed to get water, food, wet wipes to clean herself a bit, and deodorant. She didn't like her team (except for her brother) but that didn't mean she was going to subject them to her sweaty self. Naruto, would have gone back to sleep if he hadn't saw Sakura. So he then attempted to talk to her, only to get curt and annoyed answers.

By the time 7:30 had rolled around Miso was giving Naruto a few books to read and she was studying her fuinnjutsu. She could feel Sasuke and Sakura's boredom and annoyance. Naruto's wasn't as bad as he was being entertained at the moment.

"What are you doing Miso?" Sakura asked from her sitting position on the ground.

"Stuff".

"What kind of stuff?"

"…. Training".

"Training?"

"Studying".

"Well. What. Are. You. Studying." Sakura said irritated.

"Stuff".

Sakura huffed and threw up her arms, giving up on finding out what the petite girl was doing.

"Shesh, Miso. Stop doing that thing," Naruto said.

"What thing Nii-san?" Miso replied generally intrigued on what her brother was talking about. Pausing in her brush work on her newest seal.

"That thing, where you talk circles around people because you don't like people".

"Sorry, Nii-san. I'll just ignore them next time".

"I didn't mean that either. Just talk to people not everyone's out to get you," Naruto rolled his eyes as he patted his sister's head. "She's doing funjutsu, Sakura," he said as he continued to muss his sister's hair getting her to pout at him.

"It's fuinnjutsu Dobe".

"Well no one asked you, Teme! Besides, Miso's been doing this stuff for years. I know what it's called. Tell him Miso, its funjutsu".

"….Well it is fun when you get into it… so it can be a name for it….."

"See!"

"Dobe, she just doesn't want to hurt your feelings. She never said you were right. She was just making up an excuse for you to save yourself from embarrassment".

"Well at least my hair doesn't look like a ducks butt!" Naruto yelled at Sasuke.

"At least I'm not dead last and dressed in a stupid orange jumpsuit".

"At least I'm not some brooding freak!"

"Wow that's a big word for you. Did your sister teach it to you?"

"That's it, right here and now I'm going to take you down! Believe it!"

"Please, you could never beat me".

Both boys were getting ready to fight, when Miso gingerly placed her hand on Naruto's arm. He gave her a sideways glance but immediately his posture loosened and he shouted for joy at the sight of the onigiri she made. Sasuke and Sakura's stomach growled loudly at the sight of food. Miso paid them no mind as she started eating, making sure Naruto got lots of food. Naruto on the other hand grabbed some of the spare food and gave it to Sakura who in turn gave it Sasuke, rather shyly. Causing him to give more food to Sakura. Now everyone on the team was eating the delicious onigiri made by Miso. Miso was annoyed by her brother's actions but let it rest.

Miso was half way through her second onigiri when she realized neither Sasuke or Sakura was eating. If she was going to have to share with them they better eat the food. "Is something wrong with the food?"

"Oh! No," Sakura said quickly, "It's just that Sensei said not to eat because we could throw up if we did…."

"So? Throwing up your foods not the worst thing in the world. He isn't here yet so I'm assuming we have a while. Plus this is a survival test to not eat when you can would be stupid," Miso had a sardonic grin on her face. She was not happy with her team and she did not liking sharing her food with them. They were strangers. They never bothered to get to know them. They were self-centered and they were mean to her Nii-san. Miso could handle people being mean to her, but mean to her brother was something she was not okay with.

Sakura knew Naruto's feelings but disregarded them like trash. She threw away a friendship over a boy who paid her no mind. She was playing dress up instead of ninja. She was too concerned with her looks then her life. She had brains but didn't work on developing any type of skill. She bullied Naruto a bit. Her mean words and actions affected Naruto more than others because Naruto liked her. Since he liked her he wanted her attention and her approval. Her words hurt him more than the others. Miso did not like the girl for those reasons.

Sasuke was pure dislike as a person. He treated her brother bad but he treated everyone the same as him. Plus, he motivated her brother. So she could at least let it slide, slightly, that he was mean towards Naruto. However, she didn't like his attitude. His 'woe is me, nobody else knows what it's like to be me'. His better than thou persona. His I don't want anyone's help or attention but I'm going to keep putting up an angsty emo front. His attitude was what made Miso dislike him.

Then everyone fell into another long silence. Waiting for their jonin instructor to show up. By the time 10 o'clock rolled around the familiar man strolled up. Naruto and Sakura immediately started yelling at him. Miso didn't really care of he was late, but she was still annoyed that he wasn't like Gai, "How unyouthful," she muttered earning a few glances in her direction. Kakashi studied her having clearly heard her words. He had known that she was training with guy but he hadn't seen any major side effects…. Her clothing at least wasn't just the jumpsuit and it was oddly endearing. But that comment had Kakashi worried.

"Let's get started, this clock is set for noon. Your assignment is very simple you just to take these bells from me. If you can't get them by noon you will go without lunch. You'll be tied to those posts as I eat your lunch in front of you".

"Wait a minute, there are only two bells," Sakura pointed out.

"That way at least one of you will be tied to the post and two of you will be returning to the academy. Come at me with killing intent. When I say start you may begin".

Miso didn't even stop her brother has he ran forward already formulating plans in her mind to ensure that her brother and her would get the bells.' _Sasuke most likely ally would be Sakura. If he chooses to work with someone. He already knows that me and Nii-san will be working together. So he is our main threat. Sakura doesn't matter she will be too concerned with Sasuke to really do anything. Plus Sasuke was the top genin, he's the one to take out'. _

"Begin," Kakashi drawled. Sasuke and Sakura both dispersed from the clearing quickly. Naruto charged forward while Miso leaped back gaining distance between her opponent.

'_Sasuke most likely hid in a tree as its higher ground, allows for more movement, control, and sight. Sakura I assume chose something closer to the ground as it's easier to reach and is generally a better hiding spot. Her physical body is underdeveloped. Both defiantly would ensure that they have visuals of the area. Sasuke wont attack till theirs and opening or a at least a decent opportunity. Sakura most likely will be attacked. Best to leave them be at the moment. Nii-san will be using his shadow clones which is to be expected as that's the only strong technique he knows right now. I would join him but with his brawling style and sheer numbers of clones he's producing… I'll get in the way. Best familiarize myself first with how he fights before I go jumping in. Kakashi… He's just messing with us. There's no way someone of our level would be able to beat him. We'll have to outthink him rather than fight him…but none of us have that intelligence or experience so we will have to surprise him_

_Two bells… the bells are already placing us against each other. Splitting the group already in at least two groups. Usually he would only need to do three with a group of four, but two is to specifically targeting me. Two is just enough for me and Nii-san. Two purposely creates a barrier between me and the rest of the team. Sasuke knows that I'll be getting the bells for me and Naruto. Sakura will be getting the bells for her and Sasuke. Naruto will try to get the bells for me and him but his main thought his getting his own bell. Sasuke doesn't care who else gets a bell just as long as he gets one. If there were three bells, Kakashi would know that I would easily recruit another team mate to help me and Nii-san. _

_Sasuke being the obvious as Sakura is weaker and would only give her bell away. However. Just because this test is about teamwork and to measure are skill just because we work together doesn't mean we will pass. If our skill isn't adequate enough or shows potential there's no point in allowing us to continue. Plus, our team hates each other… So with such an explosive group letting us pass is like giving a child a fork and telling him to put it in an electric socket. Also… genin groups are groups of three. Not four. One of us will be reassigned or set back anyways. _

Miso thoughts were cut off as she watched in horror as Kakashi was now behind her brother with the sign of tiger. She could vaguely hear Sakura shout something to her brother, but Miso was already in movement Kunai drawn to reach her brother. "Leaf Village secret finger jutsu….a thousand year of death!" Kakashi yelled sending her brother flying through the air. The next minute he had to use a replacement jutsu as Miso was attacking him. While Naruto was in the small lake. Miso was in a locked taijutsu battle with Kakashi.

"I've never seen a style like that…" Sasuke muttered as he watched the petite girl battle it out with Kakashi. She was fast. She was all the way across the clearing and within ten seconds she was at Kakashi side to try and help her brother. Now she was just fighting him. Her body flex and bent at what would have been odd angles for anyone else but for her they looked natural and graceful. Her hits were well placed. Kakashi still had his book out but Sasuke could see he wasn't turning the pages or reading the book. Sasuke still clutched his hands tightly realizing that Miso was good. Better than the ruse she put up. She could actually stand a chance against him in a fight.

"Since when was Miso… So good? Her taijutsu is amazing…" Sakura said in awe as she watched the girl bob and weave effortless. Kakashi had to use his book as a shield a few times to block her moves.

Then his eyes widened as shuriken came from the water. Miso who was about to be hit did a sideways flip spiraling to land in a crouch. One leg out. Kakashi easily got her Nii-san's shuriken. She leapt back form Kakashi and stood by her brother. A wide stance, her left foot forward as if she was about to run. Her right hand held a kunai held parallel to the ground. Her left hand was reaching into one of her pockets to grab an explosive seal.

"You're over confident Sensei," Naurto yelled as his clones came out from the water. Miso stood still poised to attack but letting her brother take the lead. She smirked as she saw her brothers clone grab Kakashi from behind. The other clones grasped unto Kakashi holding him down as Naruto leapt up to punch the man. "This is for nailing me in the butt!"

Miso sweet dropped at her brother as he ended up punching one of his clones. Then they proceeded to fight each other, "Nii-san…. Just undo the jutsu," she called over to him. Naruto had did as she said. Miso walked towards him in order to check his injuries only to watch her brother make a large mistake, "No! Nii-san! Don't take the bell!" Then she watched in horror, she felt like fainting, as her brother set off the trap.

Luckily the trap wasn't deadly so her brother just flopped about like a fish upside down. As he was now hanging from his feet from the tree. "If the trap is obvious don't take the bait," Kakashi said. Then began to give a lecture. Miso stilled herself in her movement. _He's open, Sasuke will most likely attack now. I'll let Nii-san go then I'll get Sasuke'._

Sasuke threw Shuriken that hit Kakashi… Knocking him away from Naruto. Miso was there in a flash already cutting her brother loose. Miso paused, Not like Naruto who was now watching Sasuke and Kakashi battle it out in awe and jealous. But because she couldn't decide if she should break into the fight and attack Sasuke or attempt for the bells.

Deciding to get the bells and get revenge on Sasuke later she charged forward and joined the fray. Setting both Kakashi and Sasuke off balance, she just dodged their limbs and reached for the bells. Her fingers brushed both. She however had to draw back to block a kick from Sasuke. Sasuke's eyes widened on how effortless she stopped his leg. She was only using one arm as a shield. Kakashi see their distraction attacked them both causing them to go flying. Miso and Sasuke skitted across the ground. Sasuke took off in the forest to get away from Kakashi and Miso just smiled.

Kakashi gave her an odd look then looked down on the ground where an explosive tag laid. Then a large explosion happened. The exploding echoed through the clearing and created large amounts of smoke.

"That's impressive, make it yourself?" Kakashi said from behind Miso, her whole body tensed and she whirled around sending a punch in his direction. Kakashi let himself be hit in and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Clone," Miso observed. Deciding to look for Kakashi instead of waiting in the clearing she took off through the forest. Searching for his charka signature. She heard a scream and before she could tell her body to stop she was running towards Sakura. When she arrived started giggling at the scene. Sakura had fainted because she saw Sasuke stuck in the ground with only his head showing.

"You going to help me out of here?" Sasuke glowered at her.

"Looks like you got it covered," she giggled.

"This would be the second time you've left me tied up".

"No this would be the first time I left you in the ground, I'm sure a great ninja like you can dig himself out".

"You're not going to help Sakura? Aren't you all about helping those in need, sharing kindness?" Sasuke said sarcastically.

"It's more instinct than anything else," Miso held a thinking pose.

"Instinct to help people and do unnecessary things?"

"Maybe, plus it's always good to have allies," she chirped as she waved good bye.

"Well you're not making any allies out of me and Sakura".

"I don't need people like you," she grinned her sweet grin and then left them be. At least that's what Sasuke thought until he saw an object coming straight at him. His eyes grew wide as he realized he couldn't dodge. He let out a breath and grumbled relived. As a small spade dug itself into the ground an inch away from his face.

"What's a shovel going to do, I can't use my hands… why does she even have a shovel?"

By the time Miso found her way back, Sasuke and Sakura had made it to the clearing and her brother was tied to the post. Miso ran over with a kunai ready to cut her brother lose. However in a flash she was tied to another post next her brother.

"Sorry, can't let you untie him," Kakashi said smugly, "I think I've decided… that none of you will go back to the academy. You all fail".

"What?!" Naruto yelled, "You can't do that!"

Sasuke charged forward in anger. Sakura looked to be fighting an inner war with herself. Naruto was still yelling but Miso. She had an actual smile on her face, not a fake one. A real one, a smile of relief. If Naruto was dropped from the program then they wouldn't have to become ninja and protect the village. She was sad that he wouldn't succeed in his dream but they were young, her Nii-san would get over it.

"You aren't thinking like ninja. You're thinking like kids. This isn't a game, why do you think we put you on squads? Did you think for a moment? You never realized what this exercise is all about, except you Miso which is why I'm angrier at you. It's so basic- teamwork. It never even crossed the others mind. Sakura you were so obsessed with Sasuke you didn't even try and didn't bother to help the others. Naruto you do everything on your own. Everything. Your sister is right there to back you up and saved you multiple times but you just left her be. Not even attempting to utilize her. Sasuke you thought the others were so beneath you, you didn't even bother.

Miso, you only helped Naruto. You left the others be when they were in trouble. You realized the point of the exercise didn't you? Yet you still choose to not work with the others. What's worse is you held back. Your taijutsu attacks against me was slow compared to the speed you showed in coming to the aid of your brother, and weaker then what you used to block Sasuke. You didn't even break a sweat fighting me. That explosive tag wasn't the only thing in your arsenal. You didn't even try. The others all want to be ninja for various reasons yet you're purposely holding yourself back.

Yes you helped your brother in getting the bells. But you didn't even take him aside to make a plan. You understood that you needed everyone. But the truth is as much as you support your brother you don't want to be here. This whole time you've been using halfhearted attempts.

Well, anyway, it's over. Teamwork is the most essential part of being a ninja. A ninja who puts themselves above their teammates will most likely risk their mission. Example, Sakura kill Naruto now or Sasuke dies! If the enemy takes you hostage and you have an impossible choice someone dies."

Everyone of the students were feeling various degrees of guilt, anger and shame. Kakashi walked over to the memorial stone staring at it in contemplation.

"That's it! That's it! I'm going to get me and Miso names engraved on that stone! Then we'll be remembered"

"Nii-san—"

"There all K.I.A"

"That sounds cool! What does that mean?"

"That means killed in action," Sakura looked at Naruto sadly. Naruto looked properly abashed. Miso wanted to give him a hug but she couldn't. As she was still tied to the post. So instead her hands reached out awkwardly to her brother.

"This stone has the names of my closets companions….. Alright I'll give you one more chance after lunch. But Naruto and Miso don't get any. If anyone tries to feed them that person will immediately fail. I'll make the rules you follow them. Got it?"

With that Kakashi disappeared in a whirl of leaves leaving the four genin. Sasuke and Sakura slowly started eating. The tension thick between all of them. "Imouto. Why are you trying to be a ninja?" Everyone felt like the words had cut through the air as they all paused.

"So I can help Nii-san become Hokage," she grinned happily at him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why are you like that? You never ask for anything, you always do things for me, and you distance yourself from everyone. Don't become a ninja just for me, stupid. Besides, Sensei's right, you didn't even use half of the stuff you can do. Stop forcing yourself."

"Sorry, Nii-san… I'll try harder next time to he—"

"I said stop forcing yourself! Don't tell me you're not, you didn't use your summons. You didn't attempt to use any of your seals. You stayed back the whole time not doing anything. You didn't even bother to make a plan. A real plan. I may not be the smartest guy there is but you're defiantly nothing to overlook. You could have easily thought of something. I thought once we became genin you'd stop doing things like that."

"I really am sorry but you don't understand Nii-san and you never will. For me the best thing in this life is to help you achieve your dreams," Miso smiled sadly at him.

"Your right I don't unders—"

"What about your dreams?" Sakura asked interrupting the sibling moment. Cutting of Naruto who was about to yell at his sisters.

"To see Nii-san become Hokage!"

"I asked about your dreams. You can't be serious in that your only goal in life is to help your brother".

"Nii-san is the best!"

"So what about you?" Sasuke asked stopping both Sakura and Naruto from yelling at the girl out of frustration.

"What about me?"

"Never mind, here," Sasuke said offering his food to Miso. Trying to still look cool as he looked the other way faking indifference.

"You shouldn't do that, you'll get in trouble".

"Well, we need to get those bells right now you and I are the strongest on the team. Not letting you eat does nothing," Sasuke said.

"Here use my lunch instead, your also important Sasuke… we're going to need you, "Sakura blushed, "Naruto you can have some too. Both you and your sister can split it. I'm dieting anyways…"

"I have more food in my bag…. And some bandages for your cuts Sakura," Miso genuinely grinned at the girl no anger present. Pleased with the girl offering Naruto food. Sakura nodded and got more food out of the bag, along with the medical supplies.

"This sharing is great and all but… Miso and I can't eat the food…" Naruto interrupted weakly. The tender moment gone with the team as they all realized the predicament. Sakura sighed and began feeding Naruto. Sasuke's eyebrow twitched as he took an egg roll and just stuffed it in Miso's mouth. Making her cheeks bulge from the food. That's how it went for a few minutes. Sakura patiently feeding Naruto and Sasuke stuffing food in Miso's mouth almost making her choke. Sakura was a little jealous but her thoughts soon turned to Sasuke feeding their future children and she was lost in blissful delusions.

Smoke began spilling around the area, and an ominous voice appeared, "YOUUUUUUU, broke the rules! I hope you're ready for the punishment! Any last words?"

"But you said….. that the four of us all…" Naruto panicked.

"We're all on the squad and were all in this together," Sasuke covered for him.

"That's right where a team!" Sakura yelled.

"Such…. Youth….This team is displaying such youth. I could work with a team like this…" Miso said happily… They all glanced at her and sweat dropped.

"You pass." Kakashi eye grinned at them.

"W-what?" They all said dumbly except Miso who was touched by such youth that she was to busy thinking of Gai and Lee's teachings. A distant look in her eye.

"You're the first squad that passed. All the others listened to what I said. While it's true that a ninja who breaks the rules is scum but a ninja who abandon his comrades is worst then scum. You guys broke the rules but you didn't abandon your teammates. So you pass. Meet me here tomorrow at 7 so we can start training."

Naruto teared up and started shouting, Sakura cheered, Sasuke smirked. Miso started muttering about the spring time of youth.

"Now let's go home," Kakashi said as he started heading back.

"W-wait," Miso said a little panicked.

"You forgot to untie us!" Naruto yelled.

"Oh, I almost forgot," the white haired man walked over and undid the Uzumaki's siblings bonds.

"Sesnei….. This is a team of four, which one of us is going to be sent away?" Miso asked with concern in her voice, worrying that it was either her or her brother.

"No one is," Kakashi aid flippantly as he got his book out and started walking off.

"So unyouthful. Maito-san is so much better…."

Kakashi couldn't help but twitch at that. No one else really paid any attention as the rest of the team hadn't meet the green beast.

By the time they got home Miso could feel the tension in the air from her brother. "Nii-san is something wrong?"

"Ya, there is. Miso you keep so many secrets from everyone. I barely know half of what you do with Usagi and your training. I know I'm not the best brother in the world but you give me all of this attention and dedication…"

"That's because you are the best brother in the world. You always smile, you take care of me, and you make everything better. If anyone is going to become Hokage its you."

"What about you? Don't you have a dream or a goal? You don't even talk about the future."

"That's because my future is with Nii-san".

"….What about the village? I know you don't really care for them. I see the looks in your eyes sometimes and the way you distance yourself. Why are you becoming a ninja?"

"…. Because you are, and I want to be with you. I want to be like you. Plus the best way I can protect you and help you is to be a ninja."

"That's not good enough. You're signing your whole life away to me. For what? You act like I'm the only good thing in your life? It makes me angry, you do all this for me but at the same time its obvious how much you hate it. You have natural talent like Teme but you hold yourself back constantly!" Naruto was now yelling, his fist clenched.

"You are the only good thing in my life. Ji-chan will leave us one day. Shino-chan is a friend but eventually he will just leave like everyone else. Nii-san you stay. Ever since we were little you've done everything for me too." Miso's voice grew to a whistper as hse clutched her arms.

"...What if I said I was the cause? The reason people dislike us. The reason we don't have parents. Why we are so alone. What if I am the reason to cause you all this pain, all your problems?" Naruto's voice was pained as he clutched the fabric of his orange jacket near the seal.

"I know Nii-san. You have the nine-tails fox, when did you find out?

"You know?!"

"For a few years now, our birthday, the defeat of the nine-tails, the "birth mark" that's obviously a seal… It wasn't that hard to figure out. I never told you because it doesn't matter. Your still Naruto and your still my brother".

Naruto hugged his sister, "I'm glad that I have someone who cares for me so much but I'm still mad at you. You need to learn to be your own person." Miso felt cold as she watched her brother walk off after the hug. She heard a pop behind her.

"Usa-chan," she greeted as she stood in the hallway blankly.

"You okay?"

"No."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Gonna cry?"

"I told you last time you were here. I'm sick of crying."

"Good Girl," Usagi nodded in approval and patted her arm with his tiny paws.

"Let's go train and tell me about your day and that team of yours. Sis, told me they're a piece of work. Plus we need to work on you summoning different rabbits. So far you can only do three including me".

Miso nodded and picked up the white hair and walked to the backyard to give herself some room. Grabbing her backpack that contained her scrolls as she left the house.

"Why don't they understand?" She held Usagi tighter to her.

The white hare hare just patted her arms, "because its something they can't fathom".

"What can't they fathom?"

"How much someone can love and how much someone can be in pain".

"You understand, how come they can't?"

"I'm a rabbit Girl, an animal. We understand nature and how it works".

"I just wish they could".

"Don't we all, now let's stop with this sappy stuff and start summoning. Kensei and Yuu have cleared their schedules for the rest of the day so we can practice calling them".


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

To say team 7 didn't get along was an understatement. They had been together for about a month now and every training session and mission ended up in some type of fight. Naruto and Sasuke would fight. Sakura and Miso would fight. Today was no exception and Kakashi just sighed wearily at his difficult team. Sasuke was drenched in water, Naruto's clothing and hair was partially singed, Sakura was sporting a black eye and a mussed appearance, and Miso's hair was undone, clothes askew and a split lip.

Today had started out so well compared to the others. They started training, Sakura and Miso dutifully ignored each other and Sasuke and Naruto were almost civil. However it soon changed when Sasuke said a careless comment sending him and Naruto in another competition. Which later resulted in a spar. Sasuke had almost burned Naruto alive with his fireball if Kakashi hadn't stepped in and saved the boy. Miso angered by this used a water multiplier seal and an explosive tag on Sasukes water bottle. When he picked the water up he was hit with ten gallons of water. Sakura then started a fight in "Sasuke's Honor" against Miso. Kakashi stopped it before it got too far meaning Miso obliterating Sakura. The sad part was that their teamwork had gotten better. They at least completed their missions before letting themselves fight.

"Let's call it a day, tomorrow we have another mission". Everyone nodded and started packing up and heading out.

"Nii-san what do you want for lunch?"

"Actually I think I'm going to train a little longer. Don't wait up," Naruto said without even looking at the girl. No one missed the pained expression on Miso's face that had them all wanting to comfort the adorable looking girl. Even though Sakura's less favorite team mate was Miso she still felt for the girl.

"H-hai".

There was one other problem with Kakashi's team. Naruto and Miso were in a fight of sorts. Naruto more than Miso. He barely talked to her, he kept away from her, and he clearly showed his disappointment in her. Miso looked like a kicked puppy and just toddled after him still. They all generally knew the fight had to do with the fact that Naruto was upset that Miso didn't think of herself. His actions were more or less trying to encourage the girl to be her own person. Even if he was going about it in the wrong way. Kakashi just ruffled the dejected girl's hair and headed out. He thought about taking her aside and talking to her but he wasn't ready for that yet.

Miso walked the streets of Konoha lost in thought about her brother. Unsure what she should do. She knew her brother was upset with her, she understood why he was upset with her but that still didn't make it hurt any less. She wasn't going to apologize because in her opinion she had done nothing wrong. Also, just because he was upset with her didn't mean she was just going to stop putting him first. '_why doesn't he understand.'_

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she walked right into Konohamaru and his friends.

"Hey! Oh it's you, Miso," Kononhamaru had a slight blush on his cheeks.

She blinked, "Konohamaru. Who are your friends?" Konohamaru was the only person aside from her brother that she addressed with his name with no honorifics. Why? Because he reminded her of her brother. She understood that he just wanted to be recognized as his own person thus, she did just that. Plus he was much younger than her so even she had to admit it would be a little odd to address him by his last name.

"I'm Moegi, the most beautiful Kunoichi in Konoha!" a girl with rosy cheeks and large pigtails declared as she struck a pose.

"Udon, pleased to meet you. Konohamaru has told as much about you," said the other boy with a runny nose, said boy hit Udon trying to get him to be silent.

"Please to meet you guys," Miso smiled and titled her head to the side. Konohamaru blushed, Moegi started wide eyed with an idolized look, and Udon nodded approvingly at Miso.

"Miso-chan, in the near future we will have to be rivals," Moegi said gravely, "You are undoubtedly the most beautiful kunoihi right now. Which means that I'll eventually have to fight you. As of now though, I will follow in your example!" Moegi looked at the older girl's horrible outfit if she could wear such ill-fitting clashing clothing, looking sweaty and tired, and still look adorable then she was defiantly the prettiest ninja. Moegi would defiantly have to take some tips from her.

"Moegi that's really not ness—"

"Now Udon needs to find someone to follow in their footsteps. I have Boss and Moegi has Miso-chan".

"I suppose you are right". Udon nodded in agreement.

"Hey, Miso, Have you seen Boss? He said he would play with us."

"Sorry, Konohamaru Nii-san is busy training now and don't think he can play with you guys today."

"He's always training," the little boy said dejectedly. The look on his face reminded Miso so much of her brother. It was the same look he got when no one wanted to play with him, when Jii-chan couldn't come, when people turned him away. Konohamaru just looked so much like her brother that Miso just wanted to hug him, which is probably why she spoke her next words.

"I'll play with you," the look of pure joy on those children's faces made Miso forget about her brother's rejection. That's how Miso found herself playing ninja with the children as the villain. Running through the town and causing havoc.

"Mwahhahahahahaha, you shall never catch me!" Miso said dramatically as the children chased her through the market. She vaguely remembered running pass Kakashi who eye crinkled at her. But she did remember running past Gai and his team. Gai and Lee waved at her, other two members of the team just looked at her oddly. Miso supposed she did look a little odd. As she had tied a bandanna around her mouth to make her look more villainous. Plus her golden blonde hair was loose and wild as she lost her hair ties. The only thing hold her hair out of her face was the ribbon clip in her hair.

"Maito-san, Rock-san," she greeted as she continued to run slowly allowing the kids to keep up but not catch her.

"How youthful, such refreshing scene to see you so into your Springtime," Gai flashed her a thumbs up which she flashed one right back at him. Neji and Tenten looked disturbed at her realizing this was Gia's other disciple.  
"What are you doing?" Lee inquired.

"Running from Konohamaru's Ninja Squad. As I have stolen the valuable secrets from their village and number one in the bingo book," Miso smiled as Neji and Tenten gave her dismayed looks. Her tone of voice was like she was commenting on the weather. Lee and Gai just praised her.

"You make the best villain!" Lee cried out with excitement, the two high fived.

"How dare you think you can run from us!" Moegi shouted.

"Oh, gotta run," Miso the continued her slow pace to make sure the children could keep up. As she rounded the corner she literally tripped and landed on Sasuke. "Uchiha-san," she said cordially then got up. Sasuke gave her an odd look as she got off of him, he soon followed after. He was about to ask if she was okay when the kids rounded the corner and knocked Sasuke back over.

Sasuke stared after the group as he got back up again for the second time in under a minute. A scowl on his face. He was trying to debate whether he should follow them and figure out what they were doing but decided against as he heard Miso's over drastic acting."Mwahahahahahahaha! I am the most evil person out there! I will steal your pets, eat your desserts, and let you step on legos!" Sasuke sweet dropped on Miso's "villainous" proclamations. Plus he vaguely saw Miso strike an embarrassing pose. Yep, no matter how powerful he knew his teammate was it didn't change the fact she was an idiot. As he continued walking home he could still hear her maniacal laugh. '_She's defiantly an Idiot_,' he thought.

"Give us back that scroll, Dark Rabbit!" Konohamaru shouted. A few people sweet dropped at the villain name thinking the kids could have thought of something better to the name villain. Not realizing that Miso came up with the name herself. They continued to bob and weave through the crowd. Jumping over a few obstacles and flipping over people. Her maneuvers were really quite fancy at one point as the kids cornered her she channeled chakra to her feet ran up the fence that was behind her then back flipped off of it. Sailing over the kids, giving them a peace sign, landing it and taking off again.

As she looked back to see where the kids were she ran into something hard, she was going to fall over if familiar arms didn't steady her, "Miso, you need to walk slower and look where you're going. Why? Because you have a tendency to fall," Shino said.

"Hey, Shino-chan! Hyuga-san and Inuzuka-san," Miso greeted with a smile. Akamaru barked happily at her, Hinata waved slightly and Kiba just nodded at her. The whole team 8 started at her, it was the first time they had ever seen her hair down and loose. It was really pretty was it glistened in the sun and curled under slightly. However they were also staring at the black cloth around her mouth.

"Miso what are you doing?" Shino asked.

"Playing ninja," she eye grinned.

"That's so childish," Kiba said as he rolled his eyes at the girl.

"There she is!"

"Dark Rabbit!"

Team 8 turned to see a group of children running towards them. Miso quickly moved towards Hinata, grabbing a kunai and holding it to her neck. She also held one of Hinata's arms gently behind her back. "What are you going to do now, you puny weaklings? I have the princesses, and the village secrets! Mwahahahahahah hehehehe". Shino couldn't believe someone who had fooled everyone for years about her abilities was so bad at acting. Her voice was an octave lower as she attempted to sound intimidating but all it did was make her look silly. Her maniacal laughing was forced as she actually said mwahaha, instead of laughing.

Hinata just stammered at looked confused on what was happening. Kiba laughed till Akamaru joined in on the fun and leapt from his head and growled at the kids playfully. "I also called upon my trusty side kick Dark Puppy!" The children gasped and took on an offensive stance.

"Hey, don't drag Hinata and Akamaru into th—" Kiba was cut off as Shino waked his stomach signaling him to be quite. The Aburame really wanted to see how this played out.

"Take this!" Konohamaru yelled as he threw shuriken at her. The metal projectiles only made it a foot before they hit the ground not even close to Miso. Konohamaru stilled looked as cocky as ever, "I should have known you'd block my attack, your really are a formidable oppenot".

"Let me try!" Udon said as he too threw the shuriken only to have them somehow against nature and physics as the ninja tools curve backwards towards them. The kids all yelled and scattered.

"I guess it's up to me," Moegi said seriously. She took a running start only to trip and stumble. She waved her arms about to keep herself up right only to toss the shuriken up in the air. Miso who was watching this, took pity on the children and stepped forwards enough held out her arm and allowed the object hit her. Luckily they were blunt so at most it would bruise. She let out a fake gasp, the children cheered.

"You laced it with poison," She let go of Hinata held her arm close to her chest and began to spin around, "You really are formidable, Ninja. I had no chance against you…" She muttered as she stumbled forward and fainted. Kiba had to admit that her fainting was the best part of her acting, but he assumed it was because she fainted all the time from bugs. Miso once on the ground rolled towards the little girl and held up her right hand, touching the girls face. "I see my errors now. Even though we weren't comrades or anything please fulfill my last wish," Miso had fake tears welling in her eyes. Moegi was actually crying.

"Anything Dark Rabbit!"

"You need…."

"What?!"  
"You need…."

"You're fading fast! Hurry please tell me," Moegi was now holding Miso's head in her lap.

"Live in your Spring Time….. of Youth". Miso then coughed dramatically and stilled her movements with her eyes closed.

"No! Dark Rabbit!" Moegi shouted.

"I thought she was the bad guy," KIba said confused.

"YOUTH!" Moegi yelled tears running down her face, Udon fell to his knees clutching the dirt in despair.

"Moegi, pull yourself together. She was a formidable opponent," Konohamaru said as he stared off into the distance trying to look cool. "She really was a great ninja, but she was no match for our incredible skill. We will always remember her, Dark Rabbit was the best villain ever".

"So she is the villain? Then why are the acting like one of the good guys died," Kiba muttered to Shino. After a few moments Miso opened her eyes, patted Moegi on the head, helped Udon up, and then ruffled Konohamaru's hair.

"That was fun," She took of the black bandanna placed in her back pack. Akamaru barked excitedly and leapt into her arms. Miso giggled and started petting the dog.

"You're a really good actor," Udon said.

"Thanks for playing with us," Moegi grinned.

"Ya.. Thanks…" Konohamaru suddenly got really shy as he looked up at the girl.

"Anytime, but I hope you don't mind…. I want to catch up with Shino-chan now, so I'll have to leave you guys be". The kids nodded and then ran off.

"Miso, would you like to join us for tea?" Shino asked as he already began walking towards the café that they were going to eat at. Miso nodded and followed after him.

"He acts like what just happened didn't happen," Kiba said annoyed.

"Well, they've known each other for a long time…." Hinata said.

"Whatever," Kiba grumped as the two followed after Miso and Shino who were chatting idly. They soon entered the small Café and took their seats.

"Isn't this the place where we become friends?" Miso inquired as she handed Akamaru back to Kiba.

"If I recall correctly this is the place where we struck a deal to get to know each other. We become friends a weak later during lunch".

"That's right, silly me. I think I'll go for some lemon tea what about you?"

"Just some green tea. Want to split a meal. You never finish yours and I'm not that hungry," Shino said as he pushed his glasses on his face.

"Sure, you can pick. I know you're a picky eater".

Hinata and Kiba just started at the two. They both knew that the Uzumaki and Aburame were friends back at the academy but seeing them interact so casually was just odd.

"I thought you guys just sat in silence," Kiba blurted out.

"Sometimes we do," Miso grinned not at all offended by Kiba. The waitress came by and took their order. He was confused when Shino just ordered for Miso and Miso just gave Shino a grateful smile.

"So how is your team?" the blonde girl asked Shino.

"It's going well, we just finished training with Kurenai Sensei".

"Do you guys like her?" Shino nodded, and Miso looked at the other two members of team eight.

"She is very nice," Hinata blushed and looked down nervously.

"She's okay but our team is totally the best!" Kiba grinned, "What about your team?"

"It's different…."

"How so?" Hinata inquired as she took her food from the waitress.

"Well…. Our Sensei shows up late every day. He's totally unyouthful, Maito-san is way better. To bad he couldn't be my Sensei. Anyways, Nii-san and Uchiha fight all the time, Haruno and I don't really get along…."

"Wow, sounds like a pain. So how is Sasuke's training coming along? He's the only one worth beating".

"Not as well as you would think, Inuzuka-san. Nii-sans training is going great".

"Miso, you can call us by our names you know," Kiba rolled his eyes.

"I'm glad that Naruto is doing good…."

"Thanks, Hyuga-san".

Shino studied Miso for a minute knowing something was off, "How are you and Naruto?" Miso tensed and looked at Shino with a tight smile,"….I see… Well I hope it all works out. How's your training coming along?"

Miso let out a breath grateful that her friend didn't press the matter, "It's going good. I've gotten past storage scrolls and now I'm working on elemental seals."

"That's good to hear".

The table fell into silence. Shino and Miso seemed comfortable with the silence and continued to share their food. Kiba fidgeted trying to think of something to say and Hinata just looked down at her food nervously. The rest of the meal was in silence. By the time Miso was done eating she realized it was time to go see Jii-chan for tea and lessons on fuinnjutsu. So she took out her bunny wallet that looked like her brothers frog wallet, put her share down and waved good bye to team 8.

"Where are you going?" Kiba asked surprised that the girl was just leaving.

"I have some evening tea and lessons with Jii-chan to get to. Thank you for having me and I hope to see you guys again," She did a quick bow and left.

"Naruto and Miso have a grandfather? I thought they were orphans?" Kiba scrunched up his nose in confusion.

"She means the Hokage," Shino replied as he eyed a beetle crawling on the table.

"What! She gets lessons from the Hokage!"

"Kiba-kun you shouldn't be so loud," Hinata said as she looked nervously at the people glaring at them from Kiba's outburst.

"Not often but yes, she does meet up with him to get some lessons. Most of the time is just tea though".

Kiba just huffed in annoyance, "I don't get her."

"Most people don't only those she calls friends understand her more than others," Kiba just raised his eyebrows at Shino who seemed oddly proud.

"I feel bad for her…." Both boys looked towards the girl teammate, "Her team… she doesn't seem happy with them and they don't seem to get along. That must be stressful…."

"Naruto must be stressing her out." Kiba nodded in agreement.

"I doubt Miso would be stressed about her brother. She cares for him deeply. A more correct observation would be Sasuke."

"Luckily Sakura is on the team, I bet she and Miso get along".

"… Perhaps…" Shino replied to Hinata not wanting to worry his already hesitant teammate. Shino knew from Miso's sad attitude that Naruto and her were fighting. He knew that she didn't like Sasuke and that Sasuke was notorious for causing teamwork issues. He also knew that Miso didn't like Sakura. He saw that looks she would give the girl at the academy. He felt bad for his friend as she was obviously struggling but he couldn't do much as he knew that she wouldn't open up to him. So Shino just left the matter be.

Miso walked along happily after her lessons with Jii-chan. It was fun to catch up with him again and he gave her a few new scrolls to study. She hummed along as she felt the chakra rhythms, she put her senses outwards to see if her brother was home and grinned when she felt his presence.

"I shouldn't be surprised. Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered as he fell into step with the girl already knowing he was going to walk her home as it was dark out. Miso just grinned at him not surprised that he was there as she felt his presence five minutes earlier. "So I heard that you apparently a villain named Dark Rabbit?" He said dryly as he raised an eyebrow at her.

"The most evil villain ever".

"That names so lame it makes you want to pull your _Hare out_," out the dark haired boy smirked at his pun and gave a small grin when Miso started giggling.

"It really was a _hare _brained scheme. I wonder why anyone would even _carrot_ about the name".

"Lettuce quite while we're a head". Miso grinned at the boy as she laughed at his jokes. Shikamaru may not find them funny but she did so he was fine with telling a lame pun every so often. "How's working with your team going? I wouldn't want a team like that, too much work".

"It's okay… none of us get along, admittedly though I could try and be better and not fuel the fighting but… it's hard." Miso didn't know why she was telling him this when she didn't even tell Shino but she figured it was because Shikamaru always had a more soothing effect on her. Back at the academy he was always just so relaxed and uncaring, even when he stood up for her, that she just became more relaxed in his presences. When they walked home she liked that he didn't expect conversation from her. So perhaps the fact that she didn't have to worry about what he thought allowed her to open up a bit.

"At least you got your brother."

"….."

"What a drag, you're actually fighting with him? I almost thought that was impossible".

"He's fighting with me, he's upset with me…."

"Really? That knuckle head actually being mad at you? Hard to believe but I'm sure it will all blow over, whatever it is".

"Hopefully… He's mad because I don't put my full effort forward and that I don't let people in". _Why am I telling him this?_ She all but screamed in her head.

"Well that's not his problem. He can't tell you what to do and how to feel. Now the effort thing, I can't really give you advice seeing as I'd prefer not to do any of this either".

Miso looked up at him with a gentle smile at his admission, "Then why do you do it?"

"The same reason you become a ninja too. Its more troublesome not to". Miso just nodded knowing that his words were the most simplistic way to describe why the heck she was a ninja. If she wasn't then she'd have to find a whole new career, deal with the pressure of dropping out, worrying about her brother constantly, not living up to Jii-chans expectations, not knowing what else to do but be a ninja. It was nice that he understood a little bit of her problem.

"The stars look nice out tonight don't you think?"

"I guess, I more of a cloud person".

"That's right, I've seen you a few times with Akimichi-san, you guys always looks so peaceful just sitting on that hill looking at the sky".

"Well its better than doing work".

"You must be miserable now that we have teams. You must hate training all the time".

"It's a drag, but we don't really do much. Sometimes I just play Asuma-Sensei in shogi or we sit and do nothing. He's an okay guy."

"I'm glad that you like your team. Poor Yamanaka-san, all you're laziness about must be driving her crazy".

"She can be a real pain. Today she yelled at us for ten minutes to make sure we would take a mission".

"Did you?"

"Eventually, an hour later, just to mess with her".

"Poor Yamanaka-san," she laughed. The two fell into a comfortable silence only broke slightly when Miso ran into a lamp post. Shikamaru didn't even bother stopping her and just let it happen as it was to troublesome. "You could have stopped me". She muttered as she rubbed her now aching nose, he just shrugged in response. They quickly waved good bye as she went up to her apartment. Shikamaru continued on his way home, looking at the stars, '_They do look nice tonight'_.

"Hey Nii-san!" Miso chirped as she went to the kitchen to heat up dinner, "Sorry about not making dinner I got was busy talking to Jii-chan and Nara-san and lost track of time".

"It's fine, I alreay ate," Naruto said as he walked out of the room heading towards bed.

"….Nii-san ignoring me and treating me like this isn't going to change anything…" Her brother paused as he entered the doorway to their bedroom. Miso fingered her hair pin nervously.

"Then what can I do to make you care for yourself? You're important to Imouto and I don't want you giving up your life for me".

"Nothing. I will always love you Nii-san".

Naruto just sighed, "Aww, Man. Your making this so difficult. It so frustrating!"

"Sorry".

"Don't apologize….. Listen I'm still upset with you but I'll try to work past it. Also I want you to have a dream. When you find a dream tell me and we'll work together to accomplish it. Got it?"

"Hai".

Naruto shuffled over to the table where Miso was now eating, "So wanna tell me a story?"

"Once upon a time—"


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

"Good kitty, pretty kitty. Don't be scared Tora, Miso's right here." All of team 7 looked at Miso in surprise as she tamed the foul beast that moments ago was making chopped liver out of Naruto's face. The fur ball just purred contently in the blonde girl's arms as she cooed and pampered the animal.

"Wow, Sis. You're really good with animals".

"That's just unnatural," Sakura said in awe of the cat's change of demeanor. Sasuke just remained silent even though he agreed with Sakura.

"Well, then let's take her back to the Mission Desk and give our reports," Kakashi said as he went back to reading his book. Getting over the shock that that his little student was able to tame the cat that so many before had failed at. It was almost disappointing that out of the hundreds of genin teams that had to face the demon animal. The little blonde girl in pigtails who obsessed over bunnies, her brother, and fainted over bugs was the one to get the foul thing to like her. The group of five walked back to the desk just watching Miso cuddle with the cat.

As soon as they walked into the office building a plump women with just too much makeup on plucked the cat right out of Miso arms and began to strangle the cat with love. Miso just stared at her now empty arms in dismay. Trying to comprehend that the cat was gone within milliseconds of walking into the office. She didn't even get to say goodbye to the kitty. As she looked towards the women who had taken the cat, a look of horror crossed the girls face. She couldn't believe someone could treat an animal like that. Sasuke placed a hand on the girls shoulder to stop her from rescuing the cat from the women who was swaddling the poor thing with her face.

Kakashi's arm twitched outwards as he involuntary went to reach for the cat to give it back to Miso. The poor girl just looked so sad, as if someone had died. Instead he just reached out to ruffle the girl's hair and give her his famous eye smile. The Hokage caught Kakashi's eye and gave him a knowing glint. For Sarutobi had fallen for the girl's sad face many times. Kakashi sighed as he decided to stop getting distracted by Miso, and stop Naruto from making a further idiot of himself. So with a swift hit to the head he successfully shut the boy up.

Afterwards he like the rest of his team tuned out the Hokage as he began speaking about the missions. He half listened to Naruto as he talked about the different ramen he was eating. The rest of the team joined into as it was more interesting then listening to something they already knew.

"Quite lecturing me like your grandfather or something, I'm not a little kid anymore or that brat who used to play pranks. I'm a ninja now and I want a ninja mission!" Naruto pouted like a child his cheeks puffing out in his tantrum.

"Nii-san! Sorry, Ji-chan, he doesn't mean it".

"So Naruto wants us to know he isn't a brat anymore. He's a brat who wants a ninja mission… So be it. I'll be giving you a C-rank mission. You'll be guarding a man on a journey."

"Wahoo! What is it are we going to be like guarding a princess or something cool like that?"

"Don't get ahead of yourself. It's an escort mission. Send in our visitor".

The rattle of the door caused everyone to turn to a haggard old man with drinking problems. "What the? A bunch of snot nosed kids? You, the little one with the idiotic look on his face you really except me to believe that you're a ninja?"

"hahaha! Who's the little one with the idiotic look on his face?"

"…Nii-san…" Miso shook her head at him as he realized that both Sasuke and Sakura were taller than him. His eyes widened as he looked at his sister.

"Hey! How dare you say that too Mi—"

"Naruto!" Sakura said as she punched him, "He means you!"

"I'll demolish you! Just let me get my hands on you!" Naruto shouted as Kakashi grabbed his shirt collar to keep him in place. Miso would have to get the bridge builder later for revenge.

"I am Tazuna, a master bridge builder. I must return to my country to build a bridge that will change my home. I must get their safely even if that means giving up your life."

"Well, then with that settled we'll leave tomorrow morning around seven. Meet at the front gates," Kakashi smiled at the man as he dragged the still yelling Naruto out of the room. The rest of team seven following.

"….Sensei…"

"Yes, Miso?"

"Don't you think it's odd that for a c-rank mission he was so concerned with us as guards?"

"Well, we are a bunch of Kids," Sakura shrugged answering before Kakashi.

"That's true but he purposely stressed his safety".

"Well, that's why he's hiring an escort, Miso. Of course he's worried about bandits and things like that".

"Haruno-san, I don't think you realize what I mean. A simple travelling bridge builder shouldn't be concerned that much."

"What do you mean?"

"His clothes are worn, his shoes are falling apart, and the alcohol he was drinking was the cheapest one can possibly buy. He reeks of it but it must be watered down. As the drink itself didn't have the correct coloring, it was clearer than it should be. I saw it when it ran down his face as he seemed to be incapable of drinking is beverage without spilling it. Which means that he has had more than one bottle to smell that foul. To be guzzling that much of a drink and not be tipsy… either means he has a very strong tolerance level, which I assume he does, or that it's watered down. So he's trying to make his alcohol last. So for appearance sake any decent bandit wouldn't target him as it's obvious that he is not carrying much money. If he can't even afford a decent bottle of alcohol or a new pair of shoes then there's nothing to be gained from him".

"The land of waves… it isn't the farthest journey either, " Sasuke added in, "him traveling by himself would go faster and draw less attention. A group of ninja even if we are young draws more attention for bandits and things of that nature then a lone traveler".

"You guys are just being paranoid, right Sensei?" Naruto stated more then asked.

"Good observation skills Miso and Sasuke, well I have things to do," Kakashi said as he disappeared in a whirl of leaves.

"Why does he always do that," Sakura's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"Well see you guys tomorrow! Come on Miso lets go pack!" Naruto grabbed his sister's hand and ran off dragging her behind him. Both Sasuke and Sakura flinched as Naruto accidently led her right into pole. The poor girl had called out a warning to have her brother stop but he was too excited and missed what she said. Instead he kept charging forward making it so she couldn't evade the metal pole.

The following morning even Miso was excited for their first actual mission. She had never been outside of the village and being able to see what lay outside Konoha was just so exhilarating. No more villagers with hateful looks, no more of the same old thing, just the world. Sasuke and Sakura just looked at the Uzumaki siblings with exasperation as they both seemed to be vibrating in place. They also didn't fail to notice the dent in Miso's forehead protector from where she had it the pole.

"Are they always this excited," the bridge builder said annoyed.

"Well… Miso usually isn't. Man I'm already exhausted just looking at them, right Sasuke?" Of course he didn't reply.

"Oh, good everyone's here," the white haired jounin said as he strolled up casually.

"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura yelled.

"Your just early, now shall we get going?"

"Yes! Alright!" Naruto shouted as he began to look around and get excited Miso joining him in his exuberance.

"What are you getting so excited about," an annoyed Sakura said.

"This is the first time Miso and I have ever left the village! We're travelers now, Believe it! Hahahahahaha," the blonde boy laughed as he began to look around, Miso had ran a few feet ahead of him and was picking flowers.

"You expect me to trust my life with those two blonde midgets? Their a joke!"

Naruto and Miso both tensed. Sasuke couldn't help but agree with Tazuna as both Miso and Naruto seemed to be only seconds away from rolling on the ground in their excitement.

"Well, I'm a Jounin. So you don't need to worry," Kakashi said to placate the irate Tazuna. However it failed to placate the Uzuamki twins as dark auroras seemed to becoming off of them.

"Hey! Never insult a ninja! It's a big mistake, and I'm going to be one of the greatest ninja ever. Someday I'm going to be Hokage and you'll look up to me! My name's Naruto Uzumaki, Believe it!"

"Hokage are wise and powerful… You are puny and brainless. The day you become Hokage I'll sprout wings and fly".

"Shut up! I'm going to be Hokage no matter what it takes. Then everyone will have to admit that I'm the top ninja, including you!"

"You can become Hokage ten times over, but to me you will remain a loser".

"Augh! That's it, I'm going to make you pay for that," Naruto went to charge forward but Kakashi restrained him again.

"Naruto, you're supposed to protect the client not attack them".

"Nii-san… Kakashi Sensei is right. Besides…" Miso gave Tazuna an evil grin, her anger showing through. How dare he insult her and her brother like they were useless. Getting out of the village was supposed to be a break from that treatment. '_I guess people are no better where ever you go, they're the ones who are useless, and they're the ones who are weak_'. Then on top of that to blatantly discard her brothers dream like that. '_How dare he. How dare he think that he can just act like that? What gives him the right, what gives any of them the right? To just tell us what we can and can't be. I am so sick of this treatment, I'm so sick of them'._

"After the mission he will no longer be the client. Then we can beat the shit out of him and show him who exactly he is messing with you." Miso at this point had pulling out a kunai and was now 'cleaning' her nails with it as it glinted in the sun in a threatening way. Her eyes never leaving the bridge builder that malicious smile still on her face. She admitted it was a bit of an overreaction but it was a good revenge from the insult he did to her brother now and the way he insulted him yesterday. So just this once she let her anger show instead of hiding it and mulling of her thoughts.

Tazuna kept a poker face on kept walking forward like the girl's words didn't bother him yet he couldn't shake off the cold feeling inside of him. The girl's eyes… they were so full of anger, her whole face seemed to transform with those hate filled eyes and spiteful smile. She seemed savage compared to a few minutes ago. Sasuke's eyes sharpened as he recognized the look on Miso's face. It was the same look she gave him a few years ago when she told him off. Sakura looked at the girl with disbelief, she had seen the Uzumaki mad and she had been in a few fights with her… but that look was different. Sasuke and Sakura both had mentally decided in that moment to watch the girl closely the rest of the trip.

Kakashi didn't show any outward sign but his mind was in deep thought as he recognized the eyes of killer. The eyes of ninja far older then the girl. He wasn't surprised to see this reaction. The Hokage had told him how she acted towards Mizuki the day Naruto got the scroll, he also remembered the day that man was killed. He'd always feel guiltily as he was the one in charge that day. He only left a moment and when he came back to rescue them. Well they didn't need to be rescued but it still didn't' change the fact that one of the children had killed the man. At first everyone thought it was Naruto but Kakashi always felt like it was really Miso. Of course it wasn't till later that he gained that hunch. Her tears and broken face remembering them he didn't see remorse or fear of the dead man. No, they held fear towards herself.

The Hokage had asked the children what had happened but neither child ever spoke of which one killed the man, they both just dodged around the subject. Which was odd considering the man attacked them and they wouldn't get in trouble. Kakashi suspected that Naruto was trying to protect his sister, and Miso was trying to hide this side of her to protect her brother.

Naruto stopped his ranting and stilled his movements. He shook of Kakashi's grip and walked up to his sister and smacked the back of her head, "Baka, we have to make sure we get paid first," he joked. Successfully diffusing the situation. The two laughed and followed after the bridge builder. They walked in relative silence the rest of the day. Except for a small debate on carrying a backpack and how it sucked. Although Miso pointed out that it wasn't so bad which only got an annoyed Sakura as she told Miso off. Seeing as Miso carried around a backpack every day she was used to carrying the weight around and the hindered movement.

Kakashi did observe however that Miso seemed twitchy for some reason and kept looking towards the trees. It wasn't till later that night that Kakashi found something rather interesting out. Although he shouldn't have been surprised as she was Minato's daughter, his sensory abilities were amazing.

"Sensei, can I talk to you a minute?"

"Sure," Kakashi led her away from the others as they were making camp, he could tell she wanted to talk in private. Sasuke was setting up a perimeter, Sakura was getting dinner ready, and Naruto was on guard duty. Panicked filled him at what she could be talking about, '_What if she knows about my connection to her parents? What if she knows about her parents? Oh, Kami what if she asks me about boys and puberty? Her period?! Please Kami, let it not be that'._

"Sensei, we're being followed".

"…..What?" the belated response was mostly out of relief that it wasn't any of his prior thoughts that she wanted to talk about. His response didn't stop him from tensing and scanning the area. Truthfully he had felt something was off but he wasn't sure.

"Don't worry, their about a mile to the east of us. They don't want to be to close in case we run into them and start a fight before they're ready. They've been following us since we left the village, at first I wasn't sure as I could feel multiple signatures with in my radius and it was confusing to feel so much unfamiliar chakra. Yet it soon become clear as they have been tailing us all day".

"Why didn't you bring this to my attention earlier?"

"….. Truthfully I was hoping that they were just back up ninja from Konoha or ninja who were just traveling in the same direction."

"That was rather foolish, Konoha ninja would have alerted us in some way and other ninja in this area usually means a threat".

"I'm sorry, I also didn't want to revel my sensory abilities… anyways, and they seem to have average amounts of chakra that matches up to a chunin level. I doubt they will attack tonight as they wouldn't have the upper hand. Even without me warning you we would still be difficult to attack."

"Why keep your abilities a secret? And why would it be difficult to attack us now?"

"Sensei, your already know that answer to both questions, why are you—"

"Humor me".

"Well attacking us now or later tonight is stupid. Were camped by a cliff side meaning that our backs are covered. It' a small clearing only really allowing for a frontal assault. We have a guard already set up so they most likely will spot them before they can do anything. They didn't know where we would camp for the night so they couldn't place traps or genjutsus down. Then the rest of us who aren't on guard duty are ready for an attack of some sort. The number one rule of survival is never be defenseless. Sakura has positioned herself to allow her quick accesses to her weapons and full view of the forest. Sasuke's been playing with his kunai for the past ten minutes showing it's at the ready. Nii-san, well he is on guard duty. Before I called you over you've been scanning the area also. Basically we are at the ready.

Later tonight you most likely will have half of the watch with one of us. I'm assuming Sakura as she is the weakest member of the team. Naruto, Sasuke and I will have the other watch. They've been observing us all day so they already have a feel for how we would work. Maybe not our abilities but our mindset, yes. So they know with us on semi alert looking for trouble might be able to spot them. Plus if they haven't attacked us yet today then they won't attack us now. They're waiting for something, assessing us, determining what actions they should take. Their chakra signatures are too far away to be of an immediate threat. Their purposely distancing themselves."

"Very good, but you didn't answer my other question".

"….Well why do you think I don't want people to know?"

"Because your abilities are rather skilled. Being able to sense chakra is already special. Yet to do it from a distance, the amount they have, and I'm assuming more than that… That is very differnt. Might as well tell me the full extent of your abilities as the cats out of the bag".

"I guess but, it's not just sensing chakra… If I tell you this will you keep it a secret, I know that I wouldn't be able to keep this ability silent for forever but I would like to keep it secret just a little while longer".

"I will have to tell the Hokage".

"He already knows some of it but not all of it. Just no one else, please," Miso voice cracked slightly as she felt panic swell inside of her.

"I promise, it will stay between us and the Hokage. No one else will know".

"You promise, you for sure promise?"

"Yes, I promise you that this will stay between us".

"I'm not normal…." Miso hugged herself her body caving in. She seemed to grow smaller, her left hand reached up and began to finger her bumble bee hair pin. "I didn't realize I wasn't normal till Nii-san…Till Nii-san told me that he couldn't do what I could do, and when I asked Ji-chan…Sensei if people realize what I can do, I'll be in danger. I can sense chakra, yes. But I can feel and see it. It's everywhere people, animals, nature, objects. It vibrates at different rhythms. People have a light glow around them. The darker it is the more chakra they have. If I concentrate I can sense it for miles and I can familiarize myself with different signatures. I can instinctively tell how much someone has now, before I had to look at someone but now my brain just lets me know based on the feel… It's harder for me to not sense chakra then it's for people to sense it. Do you get it? If people find out, I'll never be normal. I'll be tested, sent on dangerous missions, pushed to my limits-"

"Miso, calm down, it's okay I won't let anything happen to you. Now, when you say you feel the chakra and you see it everywhere do you mean—"

"Natural energy? Ya, figured that one at a while ago but I doubt I'll become a sage or something like that".

"Why's that?"

"The most obvious I don't have a teacher, the second less obvious is that I've already signed a summoning contract. The Rabbit scroll. I doubt Kashikoi would got out of his way to teach me. Usa-chan tells me he can be quite lazy and prefers to gamble. I hear he's currently leading a betting pool on when I'll die."

"You have the rabbit scroll?"

"Why is everyone so surprised by that? Summoning scrolls are available."

"Well you're young, and although there have been other summoners to that scroll… It's well known for its potential and the fact that its summons tend to be very difficult".

"I suppose Usa-chan and a few others can be rather difficult... Is it normal to have your summons beat you up?"

"No, what do they do to you?" Kakashi was slightly amused and concerned for the girl as she seemed to gain a haunted look in her eye.

"While the rabbit scroll has thousands of summons, believe me I know Usa-chan and Yuu-chan made me look over the genealogy charts and memorize all ten of the prominent rabbit families. Each rabbit has to approve of you before they allow themselves to be summoned. You can summon them, but if they don't approve of you they either go back or attack you. Unless their weaker then they have to listen to you. If they approve they make sure to test you. I've been burned, shaved, broken, starved, tortured, training regime's worse than Maito-san… I get nightmares' sometimes…the nightmares… and I only have five that are willing to aid me whenever. Two others if there in the mood. Luckily Kashikoi likes me well enough that he hasn't had one of his fighter specialist kill me off… Kashikoi likes me for entertainment. Most of them do I think that's why they keep me around and allow Usa-chan to have so much contact with me….."

"That's not normal, summons can be difficult but not to this extent. Are you sure you want to be using that scroll?"

"They're not all bad, once you get to know them then they can be really nice. Usa-chan's been great, although he has hinted that there a little more difficult than me because of their past owner".

"Why's that?"

"I don't know all the details but from what I can gather that person was strong enough to force them into submission and treated them badly. Usa-chan says it was a painful experience because they were forciably summoned and made to do things… bad things".

"I see… Just be careful and don't worry about the enemy ninja," Kakashi ruffled her and then walked back to camp. Lost in thought at the new developments this was the most information that Kakashi was able to gain on Miso's actual ability. He knew that she excelled in taijutsu and was studying fuinnjutsu but now she had sensory abilities and summoning abilities to add to that. The rabbit scroll would explain why she had such a good bases on fuinnjutsu. He knew the Hokage met with her once a month to do some basic lessons and she did a lot of self-study. But the having a rabbit summon teaching her would explain her ability to create seals so easily.

"Miso, you okay?" Naruto asked in concern. He had seen his sister talking to their teacher and her behavior, now she just looked tired.

"I'm fine, Nii-san".

"Well, just let me know. I'll take care of your problems believe it!"

The following morning went smoothly except for the argument that Sasuke and Naruto got in. Then later on when they were walking when Miso and Sakura got into a spat that involved Sakura trying to strangle the girl. Yet considering they hardly argued the day before and none of them were sporting any injuries it was a pretty good morning. Miso and Naruto were walking a few steps ahead talking to each other and goofing around a bit. The rest fell behind them. Miso and Naruto both listened to Sakura and Tazuna's conversation although they acted like they weren't. When Kakashi started talking about the different ninja villages they gave up all pretenses of not listening and fell back a little so they could give their Sensei their full attention.

"The lord Hokage is really important," Sakura squealed. Miso could feel the slight fluxations of Sakura and Naruto's chakra, annoyance flared through her as she knew those fluxation's matched up with surprise or disbelief.

"Hey! You all just doubted lord Hokage didn't you? Isn't that what you guys were thinking," the jounin chastised them.

"Scroll of Pain!" Miso took one of the scrolls that was latched onto her and swiftly wacked her teammates heads with it. Sasuke avoided only to be wacked with another scroll in her other hand. "Don't doubt Ji-chan!"

"Why did you hit me," scowled Sasuke. As the other two teammates of their team where denying what they had done.

"Seemed like you deserved it," Miso grinned at him as she put her scrolls back. True she didn't feel his chakra change like the others but it didn't seem fair of her to hit her brother and not Sasuke. So she hit him.

Miso looked warily at Kakashi as he assured Sakura that there would be no battles on a c-rank mission. Soon they went back to walking peacefully, Miso struggling to sense the enemy ninja as they were concealing their chakra. Yet that didn't' stop her from look at all the plants and animals around her. As they crossed a bridge Miso almost fell off as she spotted the bane of her existence.

"S-s-spider!"

"I'll get Miso!" Naruto said as he pushed his sister to the side causing her to lose her balance. Sakura and Sasuke to rush forward only to step back when a puff of smoke happened and an adorable white rabbit showed up. Grabbing the edge of Miso's hoodie and steadying her.

"Watch it Girl".

"Usa-chan! Thank you," Miso said as she made sure she had good footing on the log. Then giving a nod of thanks to Naruto who had finished getting rid of the spider. "Why are you here Usa-chan?"

"Got bored".

"Well you picked a good time to come. I'm on my first c-rank mission."

Everyone else just stared at the hare who was now sitting on the blonde girls head as they talked. Everyone but Naruto was used to the rabbit appearing whenever.

"What are you doing here? Why do you always come to ruin the fun!" Naruto yelled at the bunny. Said bunny just rolled his eyes and muttered something about little blonde midgets not knowing when to be quiet.

"Who are you calling short! I'm like ten times your size!"

"Nii-san, Usa-chan, please don't fight". The two just glared at each other and remained silent at the girl's request.

"Ummmm… Miso since when did you have a summon?" Sakura questioned seeing as no one else was going to ask.

"For a while, Usa-chan this is my team. Kakashi Hatake, Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha. That man there is Tazuna-san the person were escorting. Everyone this is Usagi". They all waved awkwardly as Usagi just saluted them cockily.

"How did you summon him so quickly?" Sasuke inquired sharply annoyed that Miso seemed to have another trick up her sleeve.

"Summoned myself Little Boy".

"That's impossible," Sasuke bit back at Usagi.

"Apparently it's not," the rabbit gloated with a superior look in his eye. Sasuke really wanted to punch the hare. How dare that bunny act better then, that smug smirk on the rabbits face the knowing look in the hare's eyes. Sasuke was against abusing animals but right then he wished he could put that pest in its place.

"What about his wings?" Sakura asked annoyed that no one else seemed bothered by a rabbit having fluffy white wings. Everyone ignored her.

"Interesting, pleased to meet you Usagi," Kakashi said as he successfully gained Miso's attention seeing if she noticed what he had noticed. Both Usagi and Miso gave him a knowing look as the sensed the enemy. It was difficult seeing as the two were still concealing their chakra but seeing as they were closer than before and the puddle on a sunny day had alerted the summoner and her summon.

Usagi and Miso continued to talk as she ran around picking different flowers and showing the hare the things she saw. Usagi just patted the girl on her head indulging her and keeping up the façade that they were oblivious. Then out of nowhere Miso whipped around and jumped closer to her companions. Taking up a defensive stance, Kunai ready in both of her hands. Usagi now sitting upright on her head instead of laying. His eyes closed and palms close together as he focused on the enemies' charka and their movements. Both not freaking out at Kakashi's untimely "demise".

Miso was about to aid her brother when Usagi told her not to, his deep voice sharp stalling her movements. Making sure she blocked the kunai that were thrown at her. Instead Sasuke jumped into the fray defending her brother. She was impressed with his quick movements. She once assured that nothing else was going to be thrown went to the aid of Sakura who was now standing in front of the bridge builder ready to take a hit from the enemy ninja. She moved in front of the girl with in seconds only to have Sasuke follow a second after. She had a few mila-seconds to register annoyance as Sasuke had placed himself in front of her and Sakura but mostly her. As his outstretched arms could hinder her movement if she wasn't better at taijutsu and fast.

She quickly moved under Sasuke's arm and thrusted her left arm upwards redirecting her opponents arm her other arm digging into his stomach with the kunai in her hand. She could hear him cough as she hit a pressure point that Gai had taught her to hit when she was fighting bigger opponents. That point of the body would cause his stomach to spasm and him to cough halting the person for a few seconds. She also felt the trickle of blood from where she had gouged the Kunai in. It wasn't enough to kill him but it did something. Usagi left her head and blocked the enemy's other arm as it reached to injure the girl. He pushed some chakra into his paws allowing him block the powerful move.

She then twirled out of the way with Usagi allowing Kakashi to hang line the ninja. She gave Kakashi the same look that Sasuke was using. Kakashi was such a show off. "Sensei you are so not as cool as Maito-san". Kakashi twitched annoyed at that. Miso didn't care that she had just annoyed her Sensei as she was now day dreaming what it would have been like of Gai had saved them. He would fought them in a fury of green and orange, taken down the opponent and showing his youthful spirit. Her attention snapped back as she heard that her brother was injured.

"Nii-san!" She yelled as she staggered forward feeling guilty that she left Naruto undefended as she assumed Kakashi was going to save him. Also because the way he was talking to her brother. She sent a glare at her Sensei as she moved towards her brother.

"Girl don't worry about the midget moron he'll be fine as long as he doesn't move around," Usagi patted her on the head getting her to calm down a bit as she was frantically digging through her pack getting her first aid kit out and look for any poison antidotes. She about fainted when she realized she didn't have any antidote, she felt a swift wack to her head from Usagi getting her to breathe normally.

"These are chunin from the village hidden in the mist. They are none for their relentless attack no matter what the cost".

"How did you know about our attack?"

"A puddle on a clear day where it hasn't rained for weeks".

"In that case why did you leave it for the genin to fight?" Tazuna asked.

"I could have taken them out before but I had to know who their target was. I wanted to know if they were after us, or the master bridge building. When you put in your request you asked for the basic protection against bandits and highway man. If we would have known that ninja were after you we would have ranked it differently and made it a B-rank mission. This is not acceptable, as this is against our mission parameters".

"We should go back, we aren't skilled enough for this mission and Naruto's hand needs treatment," Sakura said. For once Miso actually agreed with the girl and shook her head showing her support. Her and Sakura made eye contact and shared a look. It was a look that only girls can share, that knowing look where they talk without saying anything, girl telepathy. Sakura was glad that Miso agreed and Miso was glad that they were on the same wave length. For now there was a slight truce.

"Naruto's hand does pose a problem," Kakashi observed. Miso felt her brother take one of the kunais that she had left on the ground from when she dug through her backpack. She looked at him questioningly and then moved to stop him only to have her brother dodge her and stab his hand. Miso really did faint at the sight of her brother stabbing himself in the hand, everyone gave her a deadpanned look as she let out a high pitched "Nii-san" then collapsed. Usagi just sighed and grabbed her water skin and poured water on her quickly waking her up.

"I worked so hard to get here! Miso did too! Training alone for hours, working hard to get stronger! I'm never going to back down again and let someone else rescue me. I'm never running away again, I'm never backing down and letting Sasuke beat me. Upon this wound I make this pledge, believe it! Bridge builder I'll continue this mission and protect you with this kunai knife. A ninja never backs down". Everyone looked at Naruto with growing respect. Miso just grinned at clapped for her brother and his awesome speech. Looking rather silly with her admiring smile and sopping wet hair.

"Nii-san that's so cool!" Usagi rolled his eyes and went back to laying on the girls head. A little annoyed that it was wet now not making it as comfortable as it was before.

"Naruto, that's really cool and all but if you lose any more blood you're going to die. We need to stop the bleeding now or you'll be seriously injured." Kakashi sing songed a little at the end teasing the boy.

"Nii-san!" Miso yelled Usagi hitting her with his paw stopping her from fainting again. Naruto began yelling and Miso grabbed her medical kit and ran over kneeling next to Kakashi. They both watched silently as the wound began to heal, the same thoughts running through their heads.

"Hey you're both looking seriously at it? Is everything okay?"

"Its fine," Kakashi replied as he took a bandage from Miso and began to wrap Naruto's hand out of normalcy more than need. Miso quickly repacked her bunny printed back pack and made sure to give her brother some food and water. Naruto thanked her profusely and then they continued on their path. Looking for a place to camp for the night.

"Girl, go talk to the brooding boy with the duck hair," Usagi commanded as he ate a carrot that Miso had packed for him just in case.

"Why?"

"This is a moment for you to do that human thing of making friends and sharing feelings".

"I don't like him, and don't rabbits do that too?"

"Doesn't matter you little imp, go talk to him. You should thank him anyways for stepping in and defending your brother and you".

"I didn't need defending…."

"No you need friends, I don't really want another psychopath as my summoner with a sad lonely pass. Don't get me wrong I like when you actually act less than perfect and with killing intent. Much more enjoyable then that clumsy, giggly, smiley person you actually are. However, it's too much of a pain to be the summon of a bad guy again so get moving Girl and do what I say".

"I thought you liked who I was? Isn't that why you let me be part of the contract?"

"I didn't say I didn't like you general self. But it's much more fun to see you snap and lose control. It's one of the biggest sources of entertainment. Everyone gathers around Yuu's mirror to see what you're doing then we place bets on whether you're going to show your other self or not".

"I'm glad my misfortune can benefit you…" Miso pouted and glared ahead. She would have glared at Usagi but she couldn't look at him at the moment as he was still on her head.

"Very entertaining and beneficial too. You currently have seven betting pools on you and I've made a lot of money off of you Girly. Now stop stalling and go talk to the Boy".

Miso sped up her pace slightly to match Sasukes. Not worrying about anyone else as Kakashi was further ahead with Tazuna, and Sakura and Naruto were arguing. He gave her a side glance waiting for her to say something. As she never willing was in his presence.

"You did good…" she mumbled a slight blush of humiliation dusting her cheeks. She disliked the guy and his ego was big enough to fill the ocean this was the last thing she wanted to be doing.

"Hnnn.. You did well also," he replied with a tone of indifference. Although Miso knew the fact that he actually said something to her and a compliment at that showed that he was trying.

"Good, now that both of you have complemented each other you can now talk about trivial things. Miso you start first".

"Usa-chan, I don't think—" She didn't finish as the rabbit silenced her with a hit to her head with a little bit of chakra to it causing her to flinch.

"I said talk. Now do the human thing and share your feelings".

"Animals have feelings too, why do you keep saying it's a human thing?"

"Because Humans are much more concerned about feelings then other species now talk Girly before I hit you again".

"Hai…..So, the weather's nice," she mumbled looking at Sasuke with a pleading smile. Hoping that he wouldn't make this harder than it already was.

"I suppose."

"Sakura and Nii-san seem to be getting along".

"…."

"I liked your taijutsu style against the mist ninja".

"hnnn…"

"Your hair looks nice today?" She questioned hoping for a response.

"…."

"Wow, you're a pain in the foot," Usagi muttered.

"How did you get here?" Sasuke asked more interested on how Usagi was able to self-summon.

"Well, there are many opinions on that type of question. Personally I believe in God but others fall more into other categories. So Kami created the earth and everything, blah, blah, blah. Then somewhere along the line my parents met and had me. I'm assuming you know how that works or do I have to explain that to you too?"

Sasuke just glared at the rabbit, Miso couldn't help but laugh at Usagi's response. Usagi gave a triumphant grin as he took a large bite of his carrot.

"You know for a rabbit you sure are full of yourself aren't you?"

"For a little boy with duck butt hair you sure are angsty and rude, aren't you?"

"Do you always make a point to be annoying?"

"Do you always make a point to act better than everyone else? Although it might have to do with more personal issues, are you perhaps…. Smaller than average?" Usagi wiggled his ears suggestible.

Sasuke's face tinted the barest pink as he snarled at the rabbit. Miso just looked confused, "What does that mean?"

"Nothing," Kakashi said as he interfered with the impending fight between his star student and a snarky rabbit. Stopping Sasuke's punch. Miso just nodded and walked along side Kakashi as Sasuke stormed off, throwing a glower over his shoulder at the hare. Sakura and Naruto blinked in surprise as Sasuke trudged past them angrily.

"Sasuke, what's wrong? No matter how big or small the problem is I'll help you!" Sakura said as she tried to catch up only to have Sasuke scowl at her and speed up.

Kakashi, Tenzuna and Usagi began laughing at Sakura's choice of words. The first two having heard the last bit of the conversation between Usagi and the Sasuke. Miso just blinked confused, she was sure there was an innuendo their but couldn't figure it out. She was naïve but being around her brother and Usagi she did know a few things.

"Usa-chan, I thought you said you wanted me to try and be friends with him."

"That was before I realized he has just as many issues as you do. I already have enough problems dealing with you, no need to add brooding boy with personal issues into the mix". Miso nodded and started humming the chakra rhythms. Usagi joining in after he finished his second carrot. Their voices clashing, his deep baritone and her soft higher pitch. Neither stopped though. Eventually as a source of entertainment Naruto began trying to make up lyrics to their humming. Sakura and Sasuke adding their own words here and there. Miso favorite verse of the day was the one about Kakashi.

(To the tune of London bridge)

_Kakashi sensei is a perv, is a perv, is a perv_

_Kakashi sensei, is a weirdo, all day long_

_Kakashi sensei is always late, always late, always late_

_Kakash sensei reads those books, all day long_

_Kakashi sensei is unyouthful, is unyouthful, is unyouthful _

_Kakashi sensei is so lame, Matio-san is cooler. _

Miso came up with the last verse, Kakashi got to the point where he hit them all over the head to get them to shut up but it didn't stop them from laughing and referencing it the rest of the day. Even Sasuke made a comment here and there to their teacher's chagrin. Kakashi had the largest headache by the time the rested for camp that he purposely made his genin team do more work than needed. Smiling as he heard their groans of pain from setting up camp and the bout of training he made them do.

**Author's Note**

So…. This is kind of a vote, who wants Haku and Zabuza to live? If they die they die, if they live… well they might make another appearance at the chunin exams… might... and maybe later on haven't decided that yet. Post a comment, majority wins.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15** Fog filled the area as team 7 and Tazuna glided through the water on a wooden boat. The only sound being made was Usagi's snoring. Loud deep snoring that was really distracting. Naruto who was used to the rabbit paid him no mind but everyone else couldn't help but wonder how the rabbit could sleep flopped over Miso's head. His arms and legs spread eagle over her blonde hair, his ears down instead of up twitching ever so slightly. His round adorable head tilted to the side. The other wonder at the moment was how Miso didn't seemed disturbed by his snoring. Even last night as she cuddled him in her sleep she was fine with his loud snoring. Everyone else aside from Naruto was up most of the night. Finally the silence was broken when Kakashi had finally decided now was the opportune time to discuss the elephant in the room… or boat. The heavy silence was soon filled with the tale of Gato and the ill fate that rested upon the land. Usagi's snoring had soon quieted as he had woken to the tale and was listening intently with Miso. Only patting her head occasionally to reassure the girl. Now Miso didn't really have a bleeding heart. Yes, she had a soft spot for animals, her brother, and children. Well until kids reached their preteens. Then she despised them and then adults she could really care less about. Yet, hearing this tale Miso felt her heart twinge but not with sadness, wrath. The fire like emotion flaring through her. She couldn't believe she could have ever been so naïve to think that just because she left Konoha things would be better elsewhere. In fact it hurt more in the fact that she was beginning to realize her and brother's life of neglect was still better than most peoples. From what Tazuna was saying corruption, poverty, and death was rampant in the land. It hurt to know that people could be so selfish and vile. It annoyed that while she knew things could have been worse in her life, she didn't realize how bad things could have been. Her and Nii-san could be starving in the streets forced to do inhumane things for the sake of life. Yes the neglect, the isolation, the stares, the death threats, where bad. However her and her brother where still alive and there are far worse things in life then people hating you. She was so angry at herself and the world. How could she have been so stupid to think things would be better outside of the village? All those times she thought of running away to a better life. When now on knew knowledge and further contemplation she most likely would have been treated the same if not worse. It sucked sucked sucked sucked. That the world was a miserable place. Why was everything so cruel in life? Miso's anger and inner turmoil didn't reflect on the surface. Those looking at her would think she was nervous or worried as she fingered her hairpin and started pointedly at the bottom of the boat. Only Usagi who was sitting on her head could feel her chakra pulsating in frustration. Knowing he couldn't bring the subject up in front of the others the hare just remained silent as he tried to calm the irate female. Usagi also mused to himself his relationship with the odd human. Usgai was generally didn't hold disdain towards human like so many of his family. He generally didn't really care about human matters. Like the many others in his family most of the time it was to ease the boredom of their lives and provide as source of entertainment. However this human girl seemed to preoccupy much of his time. When he had first meet her he was shocked. After all passing out one moment then waking up the next being feed, healed, and cared for by imp like creature was shocking. Then her actions where vaguely intriguing and humorous. So instead of testing her or telling the girl off he decided to remain silent and see what was to happen. Then the more he got to now the blonde human the more he liked her. Her drastic change in nature compared to their last summoner was something her figured was best for him and the other summons. He did feel bad about the treatment she received from some summons but he did his best to minimize the damage. After all most of the summons will still angry at the last man who held their scroll and their anger had transformed into resentment towards humans. Yet she handled it well and she still was kind to all of them. Then seeing that sadistic side of her, which sent thrills through him and the rest of the rabbits. It was so much more entertaining to have a summoner who wasn't all good but not all bad. Constantly fighting with her nature not knowing what her next actions could be… So very entertaining. Admittedly his interest in the girl to see where life would take her was more of an excuse. Originally when he had started training her it was to repair the scroll. Then when she showed such keen intellect on a whim he started sharing more knowledge with her and soon found himself enjoying teaching the child. Then Yuu, his sister, who had been watching them too took interest. Soon there was a small campaign to teach the girl and give her what she would need in the future. Soon his generally interest for something interesting to do turned towards care. Usagi didn't have any family aside from his sister and her family, but he had to admit he cared deeply for the little human. Which is why he found himself doing a lot of work and worry for girl. Constantly checking on her through Yuu. Making deals with other rabbits not to kill the girl and come to her aid. Keeping her educated and caught up so she could fight and live. Popping into the human realm just to be around her. Yes, the little girl had wormed her way into his heart and he'd do his best to help her. Though… it did help that he was making tons of money off of her in the betting pools. Being the closet to her aside from Yuu out of all the summons did have an advantage. Usagi paused in his petting of his human when he realized they were on land and walking through the worn down village. He sighed regretfully knowing he was going to have to return as he was draining her chakra and his own reserves where low. He had stayed out since the attack yesterday afternoon and now it was reaching noon today. A little over 24 hours that he had been with her, he needed to go back and recharge himself. He wasn't worried about her chakra reserves as she had large amounts but he still wanted her to be able to put chakra in. Not slowly let it leek out. So he patted his human one more time, grunted, and then poofed away back home. He didn't really feel like talking to the girl as she seemed too lost in thought. Miso remained missed the warmth and pressure of Usagi on her head but resigned her self that her dear friend had to return home. A little sad knowing that he wouldn't be able to return for another 24 hours. Another rule with the rabbit scroll was the amount of time a summon was summoned for was the amount of time she had to wait to summon it again. She instead let her thoughts wonder to things around her. This area of town didn't seem so bad, but it was still not in the best condition. She was foolishly hoping that this would be the worst of the poverty but she knew it was a fool's notion. She was also worried about the next ninja they would encounter. If two chunins were sent right away that meant the next one would be a jounin level. Her team did have skill but three genin where nothing compared to a jounin. She knew Kakashi was strong after all he was a jounin but you never know if he was as strong as the next person they were sending. Someone was always stronger then you. Miso giggled at her brother and Sasuke's antics as they tried to race each other. However she let out a confused noise when her brother ran ahead and through a kunai into the bushes. She didn't feel a chakra signature that close. She could feel some in the distances but she wasn't sure, it was so muffled and hard to discern. "Bunny!" Miso squealed delightedly at the sight of the terrified rabbit. She quickly scooped it up from Naruto who was trying to apologize to the rabbit by hugging to death. "Pretty bunny," she cooed but then froze as she realized something wrong. White rabbit in this region, in this season, meant one thing. "Sensei, this bunny its white!" She said alarmed as Kakashi at the same time called out look out. A sword came hurling towards them, more aimed at Tazuna then the others. Miso was frozen at the sudden evasion of the new chakra signature. Almost getting beheaded if it weren't for Sasuke pulling her out of the way. Both collapsing to the ground together. His body slightly covering hers. "Pay attention, idiot!" "S-s-sorry," she stuttered out as she clutched the rabbit still in arms. Shocked that she hadn't sensed the man. '_I was so lost in my own thoughts and distracted that I didn't even think to further my senses when I felt the muffled chakra. How could I be so stupid? I knew something was off but I just didn't think. Stupid. You should have learned you lesson from the last attack! Why don't you ever think?!" _ "Well, well, isn't Zabuza. Rogue ninja of the hidden mist". Her Sensei stopped her brother from charging forward as Miso grasped her brother's sleeve in her own effort to stop him. Releasing the rabbit she was holding earlier. "Naruto he's in a whole another league, stay behind me. I'm going to have to use this". Kakashi said as he reached to lift his forehead protector. "Well if it isn't Kakashi of the Sharingan," Zabuza taunted. "Quick Mongi formation. Protect the bridge builder, stay out of this fight. I've been teaching you team work, now use it". The White haired jounin said as he revealed his sharingan eye. Miso's eyes widened and she let out a gasp as she finally realized just who their sensei was. No it wasn't because she secretly had a bingo book and studied it. Or she ease dropped on her Ji-chan. It was actually Maito-san whole told her about the copy-cat nin. She couldn't really remember what brought it up but the respect that Maito-san spoke with and the description of his abilities. It had stuck a cord with her. Yet, she never put Maito-san's rival, her sensei, and the copy-cat nin together. It didn't even processes in her mind. Miso had a swell of respect for her Sensei, he still wasn't as cool as Maito-san but he wasn't as lame as she thought he was. Unlike the others who all just stood around and talked about the sharingan she moved in front of Tazuna her hands each armed with a kunai. Miso's taijutsu style involved using both hands constantly and having both armed. She scowled annoyed at her teammates, including her brother, as they had yet to move. Finally when Zabuza mentioned killing the bridge builder her teammates reacted, Miso moved out of the way allowing the others to stand next her and better place themselves. She was in between Sasuke and Sakura creating a half circle like formation. "Zabuza is a master of the silent killing technique. As the name suggest it happens in an instant without sound or noise of any kind. It happens so fast that you barely realize you have passed from this life to the next. The sharingan cannot fully neutralize it. Stay on your guard. But if we fail we only lose our lives". Kakashi said casually as he tried to diffuse the children's nerves and yet instill that the situation was real. Very real. "How can you say that?!" Sakura shouted. "Sakura, pay attention," Miso said sharply using the girls name to grab her attention. Sakura looked wide eyed at her but nodded quickly, returning to her defensive position. Sakura risked another glance at Miso and looked away quickly as she saw the same eyes that Zabuza had. Sakura would have thought the first time Miso called her actual name she would have been happy but now she never wanted her name to pass from the girls lips. She took a slight step away to distance herself from Miso now harboring actual fear of the girl. "8 points. Larux, spine, liver, jugular, kidneys, now which will be my attack point?" Zabuza's voice echoed, his killing intent filling the area. The mist getting thicker. Miso griped her kunais tightly taking a deep breath and closing her eyes focusing on the chakra signatures knowing that her actual sight would be useless. She slowly set out a bit of chakra to help ease Sasuke who was on the verge of panic. Only able to help stall his hand from damaging himself, Kakashi's words doing a better job of reassuring the boy. She felt Zabuza hidden away, a clone with the same signature, then a foreign signature far enough away that it wasn't an immediate threat. But close enough that it caused alarm, she scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. At the odd placement of the other signature but before she could further contemplate it she grabbed Sakura and moved her out of the way as she realized Zabuza was moving to get behind them. By the time she had got Sakura and she out of immediate danger Kakashi had already stabbed the clone. With the dispersing of the water clone Miso pulled Sakura back in formation with her. Her movements werent' gentle as they were sharp and forceful. Sakura's upper arm bruising fomr the other girls grip. Miso at this point opened her eyes as her senses where fully focused allowing her to easily discern the chakra around her. Before everything had been cluttering her but now she was able to tune everything out but the signatures of those around her. Natural energy, Tazuna's civilian chakra, animals, plants it all phased out. Just the ones she needed to fill she paid attention too. She smirked when Zabuza was surprised at Kakashi's water clone. She had realized it long before he did. However she didn't let her guard down as Kakashi held the kunai to the man's neck. "Naruto, keep you guard up. Sakura get back into position." She said sharply, her cold eyes calculating as she realized something was off. Her icy voice sent chills down the spines of her teammates as they felt a smaller killer intent coming off of her. It wasn't as large as Zabuza's it felt heavier and feral. They followed her orders swiftly getting back in front of Tazuna but nothing stoped Naruto from shouting. "Hey! That's a water clone too!" Kakashi moved quickly to avoid the large sword and get to a safer position. However only ended up getting kicked in the air into the water. "Sensei get out of the water know!" Miso's voice cut through knowing that fighting a mist-nin in water was a bad idea. It was like fighting a leaf-nin in forest or sand nin in the dessert. Only to be proved right when her sensei was trapped in a water sphere. She felt the fear of her teammates as there chakra quivered. Miso oddly enough wasn't scared mostly because she was okay with dying. She didn't really want to die but she never really liked living anyways. Life was just so long and painful. Miso believed in an afterlife but sometimes she just wished she would stop existing, no after life, no life, no consciousness, just nothing. So fear of death didn't make her freeze like her other teammates. It just brought out the side of her she wanted to keep from her brother. "I said don't break formation!" She growled as Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto now seemed to be away from Tazuna leaving only her to guard him. '_Why do they keep moving? The need to stay in formation and guard. Why can't they stop reacting to everything that's happening little twits'. _Totally ignoring Zabuza's monologue about being a ninja. She moved away from Tazuna to block an attack aimed at her brother only to be forced backwards, not being able to move quick enough again she was forced to watch as her brother got hit anyways. She quickly stood back up ready to move to guard the next target. Unsure of who it would be, preferring to be mobile and ready to move then picking one person to guard. "Nii-san, calm down. After this is over I'll tell you a story," she as she gave her brother a small reassuring smile. That only lasted a second as a frown appeared back on her face. "Listen, get the bridge builder and run. You can't win this fight, he's using all of his power to keep me in here meaning he has to fight you with a water clone. The clone can't go too far from his body so if you get far enough away you'll be safe". Kakashi said urgently his voice having a slight note of panic. For some reason his words seemed to have the opposite of effect on the genin team. Sasuke become even more determined. Sasuke just charged forward, Miso swore at him. _'At least he understands we can't leave. In the end Zabuza will just hunt us down. But charging forward because you decided to fight was stupid. No real plan just a foolish thought to try and take him on. He's left Naruto, Sakura, and Tazuna defenseless. I can't really help him because someone needs to be here to guard the three of them. It would have been better if that ass actually thought to think things through'._ Naruto lay quiver in fear on the ground. Only to stop as he moved away looking at his hand. Miso's eyes widened as she watched her brother's eyes narrow slightly and a resigned look came across his face. "Naruto, I order you to stay down!" She bit out so sharply that Sakura physically flinched away from her. Naruto ignored her and charged forward towards the enemy ninja, screaming like an idiot. "Nii-san!" Miso shouted along with Sakura who complained about her bothers idiocy. "What are you thinking charging in by yourself? Even Sasuke couldn't get to him? Were only genin and he's a jounin we're no match for him?" "Nii-san I love you but if you do that again I'll kill you myself," Miso replied as her eyes never left the mist nin. The team watched as Naruto staggered to a crouching position revealing that he grabbed his head band. Miso wanted to help her brother out but continued to stand guard. Letting him get back up by himself. "Hey, take this down. The ninja destined to be Hokage of the village hidden in the leaves never backs down. His name is Naruto Uzumaki". Everyone else seemed to be touched by her brother's words but Miso just wanted to hit him. She was never one to hit or assault her brother but his stupidity and lack of self-preservation was really grating on her frayed nerves. "Alright Sasuke, Miso, I've got a plan". "So you're finally thinking about teamwork?" Sasuke replied back, which was his own way of saying I'll follow your lead. "Got it, I know what you're thinking and I'm ready," Miso said as she reached into her pouch and started grabbing seals. _'Good thing were siblings_', she thought otherwise she wouldn't have known what he was thinking off and what his plan was. Mostly because during all the talking and non-fighting Miso had constructed different scenarios in her head on how to try to take down Zabuza. With her brothers thought processes it was easy to decide which plan he was following. "Alright guys lets go wild". "Sakura, when I move you need to stand guard of Tazuna? Be at the ready. Understood." Miso demanded. "What are you doing? This fight was done the minute I got caught. Your job is not to prove how tough you are but to stay on the mission. Protect the bridge builder". "Sensei, a ninja who breaks the rules is scum but a ninja who abandons their friends is worse than scum," Miso's voice apathetic carried through the clearing as Naruto checked with Tazuna to see if he was okay with what was happening. Honestly Miso didn't care what the bridge builder thought. If he ordered them to protect him she would defect. Kakashi was her Sensei and a precious person to Maito-san. Miso looked directly into Zabuza's eye not even flinching as he began to chuckle darkly. Then the long monologue about Zabuza past came into play. About how he killed his class mates and how evil he was. Her teammates freaked out. Miso felt her anger from earlier that today about how life sucked. Her annoyance about the situation they were currently in. All the talking in the stupid fight, seriously they should be fighting now hearing back stories. Frustration that she was letting her emotions take over. Her poor brother whose life was in danger. Finally she just gave in. "Shut up ass hole. I don't really care about your past. I don't care about how many people you killed as a young kid. I don't care if it felt good. It doesn't change anything you conceited little prick. I'm still going to fight you and we are still going to get our Sensei. Since we all seem to be talking more than fighting for some stupid reason, I'll you in on a little secret. I'm not afraid of death and you arrogant egotistical ass". Zabuza charged forward ready to take down the genin and in particularly the mouth blonde girl. Surprised when Miso meet him head first after he attacked Sasuke. She lunged forward throwing one of her Kunai straight at him causing him to move slightly to the side. Still pinning the Uchiha with his foot. Miso sent a kick in his direction causing him to move out of the way. She felt her back crack as she bent backwards to avoid his large fist. She was strong but she couldn't channel chakra into her limbs meaning her kick did nothing more bruise him. With her back still bent to weare her head touched the ground Miso used her kunai free hand to touch the ground and propel herself upwards her right foot aimed to kick Zabuza. He moved out of the way easily. Miso had anticipated this and was already rotating her body to allow her to stab her kunai into him. She scratched the surface of his arm before she was thrown backwards with a powerful hit from his other arm. Her hands scrapped against the ground as she stopped herself from moving backwards. Blood dripping from her finger nails from where she had grabbed the dirt. Putting pressure in her crouched legs Miso flipped over righting self-back into a standing position. She ran again, this time letting her body move fluidly as she dodged Zabuza. He was stronger but she was faster. Left. Right. Left. Right. Right. Twirl. Left. Duck. Block. Left. Kick. Drop. Fip. Block. Right. She moved like streamers in the wind as her body bent to and fro. Zabuza grabbed for one of her pigtails lifting her up. The hair on her scalp pulling the skin. She felt like her hair was being torn off, she felt a few pieces leave her head forcibly and a small warm trickle of blood. Dying her a small section of her hair red. As Zabuza dangled her with one of her pig tails. Miso in a quick motion took the Kunai in her left hand and stabbed the clone. The kunai going through his right hand. Water tickled out but it was not enough to disperse the clone. However it did make him drop her. Miso staggered slightly as she attempted to not crumple to the ground. Yet the rogue ninja took his leg and kicked her across the clearing. Luckily Miso just rolled across the ground like someone had thrown her down the stairs. Her movements slowing when she was able to stop herself by digging her feet into the ground. Blood came out of mouth as she coughed. Heavy panting and gasps as she tried to breathe. With only a second hesitation Miso ran forward at her full speed with her weights on. Not even bothering to hold back. She saw her brother summon large amounts of clones and smirked inwardly at her small amount of back up. She moved in with the clones with one goal in mind as she grabbed multiple seals from her pouch on her left leg hiding under her hoodie. Miso placed a few other well aimed kicks and punches, adding another cut to him with the kunai in her right hand. Miso dropped to the ground and rolled into the dome of her brothers clones, placing the seals on Zabuza's legs, sword, and a few on his back making sure that he wouldn't see them. Miso felt her ribs crack as she was thrown backwards with the rest of the clones. The small amount of space and the force that had sent her flying and stopped her from maneuvering herself out of the way. One of her brother's clones caught her before she could slam into a tree again. She watched as Sasuke held the large shuriken that Naruto had tossed him. Miso stood up ready to help out her companions at the right moment. Waiting. She smiled to herself as she watched the shuriken that Zabuza had dodged transform into one of her brother's clones. While Zabuza moved to avoid the her brothers Kunai, Miso explosive tags went off causing the water clone to disperse slightly muffling the explosion sound, fire and smoke. However the explosion was successful and causing Zabuza to be distracted enough that Miso could take off her orange sandals and move fast to aid her brother. It was a blur of motion that the bare eye could barely catch as Miso moved forward grabbing her brother and moving him out of Zabuza's line of sight and immediate danger. Sadly since they were in the water she had to move him there. But she immediately began swimming dragging her brother along as he just bragged about his plan. She wished he would swim and because being in water with a mist nin was not smart but he was too busy talking about his brilliant plan to do anything. He was really heavy also. She finally got them to shore and dragged him over to everybody else. Her bruised body tired. But she still took up a defensive stance. It hurt to breathe, it felt like glass was was piercing her lungs. Her side ached from pulling her brother along with her as she swam. Her legs and arm hurt from the large bruises that Miso had gained form fighting Zabuza, she bruised easily. But the large purple marks from where she had hit the man was annoying. She did more harm to her body then Zabuza by simply blocking the guy. "Formation," she bit out, her teammates looking at her for the first time realizing how beat up she looked. They quickly took up defensive stances in front of the bridge builder. "You got to be fucking kidding me," Everyone looked at Miso in alarm as her hate filled voice and cold eyes glowering at the two jounins. '_So it takes about twenty seconds to form that jutsu, and nobody thinks to attack Zabuza during that time. No... let's juts copy it, let's just waste our time trying to look cool'. _Miso braced herself as water came crashing down on her. Her body froze as it felt the other chakra signature. The one from earlier that was just hovering in the area. Miso's head shot up towards the signature, she wasn't surprised when she felt the signature waver in surprise. She was about to attack him when Kakashi's water jutsu came crashing though. Knocking her and her Nii-san to the ground because of their small stature. Eventually it washed them away causing them to grab unto a few small trees and low hanging branches. Miso's eyes widened as she felt the presences from earlier. Too tired to move she just held limply to the tree drained of her energy. Figuring that it was someone else's turn to fight. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on other thing aside from her broken ribs. "You kidding me! What are you?!" "Naruto that's a tracker nin, when a ninja defects from a village they carry village secrets with them. His job is to take them out". Kakashi said as he walked up to check on Miso's crumbled form. As he eyed the tracker nin warily_._ "But did you see that he just took the guy down! He makes the rest of us look like were just kidding around! How is that possible? How can I accept that" Naruto was frantic. "Well even if you don't accept it, it did happen Naruto. In this world there are kids who are younger than you and yet stronger than me". Haku appeared before Zabuza's body and hefted it up and disappeared. Naruto fell to the ground and began punching it in anger. "Naruto, as a ninja the things we are encounter are never easy save your anger for your next enemy". Naruto's body crumpled slightly and he just turned towards his sister. "You okay Imouto?" "Been better". Kakashi tended Miso's wounds as gently as he could, "We need to get moving, let me to see if there's anything life threatening. Then will get moving. ". Miso nodded her purple and blue arm reached up and grabbed Kakashi's sleeve, "That person… not a hunter nin—" she coughed out blood staining her white hoodie from where her broken rib had pierced her lung. Kakashi's eye just looked wary as his thoughts were confirmed then signaled her to be silent. "Will discuss this later". After fixing her lung and rib with a medical chakra he stood up and signaled for everyone to start moving only for him to collapse forward. "Sensei!" Everyone said alarmed. Sakura ran forward and checked his heartbeat and breathing. "He's just chakra exhausted," she let out a relieved sigh, "we're going to need to carry him…" "Right," Naruto said as he attempted to lift the jounin by himself only to have Kakashi's weight crash on top of him. Sasuke just rolled his eyes and helped the orange clad boy. Tazuno aiding them also Sakura walked over hesitantly to Miso to help the girl up unsure what to do. She was scared of Miso, the way she attacked that guy, her words, her actions, it was frightening. Miso realizing Sakura's fear just gave her a tired smile and held up her hand for Sakura to take and help her up. Sakura started at it before she slowly grasped it and pulled Miso up. "Wait," the blonde girl said to the pinkette. "What?" "My shoes". Sakura turned towards where Miso was pointing and scrunched her nose up at the ugly sandals. She helped her towards them and waited for Miso to put the ugly orange things on. Then helped her up again allowing the small girl to put her arm around her neck so she could walk easier. Naruto and Sasuke argued the whole way to the bridge builder's house. Sakura and Miso remained silent. Naruto glanced back at his sister multiple times on the journey to ensure that she was okay. Deciding that he needed to talk to her. Not now, and not right when they got to the house… but soon. The way she acted today was not acceptable. Naruto may have been a goofball and sometimes spaced on his brothers duties but that still didn't change that he helped raise his sister. He was her older brother and father figure. He needed to sit her down and talk about what happened, how she was feeling, and get thing sorted out. After putting Kakashi down to rest and Sakura treating everyone's injuries as she was the one with the most medical knowledge the team sat around Tazuna's kitchen table exhausted. Luckily aside from Miso no one was seriously damaged. Miso was pleasantly surprised when Sakura seemed to take charge of the situation when they got to Tazuna's. She first had them lay Kakashi down in a comfortable bed where she checked for any signs of major injury. Then she ordered everyone to shower and get cleaned up. Once done Sakura bandaged what needed to be bandaged and gave pain medication accordingly. It was awkward when Miso was practically naked in front of the girl as Sakura bound her ribs. Kakashi had healed the bleeding and lung puncture. Allowing for the ribs to be more fractured then anything. But her ribs were still broken so they needed treatment. Sakura frowned at the girls bruises. There wasn't much she could do but it was still odd that the girl bruised so easily. Eating the soup that their host made for them, Sakura stared at Miso examining her purple and blue arms. Sakura had the girl change out of her hoodie and that hideous green suit into her pajamas. Allowing full view of her limbs. "Hey, why do you think you're so bruised?" The whole team look at the blonde girl waiting for an answer. "Well… Maito-san said this would happen. My body is really small, petite and weak. That's why I worked so hard on taijutsu. But it appears it's kind of useless if I can't add chakra into my hits. The force of the blows did nothing to him but they hurt me". Miso shrugged as she took a large bite of her soup smiling at having her stomach full. "Hey… Miso, you said you'd tell me a story," Naruto grinned at her trying to cheer her up. Knowing his sister was more upset than usual. "Story?" Sakura asked. "Ya, you said something like that to him in the fight," Sasuke looked at Miso. "She tells the best stories, Believe it!" "Nii-san I don' think they want to hear a silly story—" "Actually I think a story would cheer everyone up, don't you agree Sasuke?" "Hnn". "Well if you're sure… Their once was a girl named Buttercup—" "Buttercup?" "Shut up teme, let her tell the story!" Sasuke just glared at Naruto but said nothing. Tazuna and his daughter listened from the other room wanting to hear the story too. "Buttercup favorite past time was making the farm boy work. She loved ordering him around with her simple request. All he ever said in return was "As you Wish". Even though he said "As you wish", what he truly meant was "I love you"". "How romantic!"  
"Not interested," Naruto grabbed Sasuke forcing the boy back down. "It's only just started!" "I don't want to hear a romance story," the dark haired boy rolled his eyes. "I suppose there is romance… but theirs also giants, sword fights, eels, six fingered men, revenge and some humor. But I guess you don't have to listen to it if you don't want to". Miso grinned at the boy sweetly effectively getting Sasuke to sit back down, Sakura to stop squealing and Naruto to pay attention. "Eventually Buttercup grew to love the farm boy. So with a plan to marry her Wesley set out to earn his fortune. However as weeks turned into months which turned into years. Wesley never returned and word game that the dread pirate Roberts had killed him. In her grief—" 


End file.
